Impact analysis rendered impotent by corruption

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government made the commissioning of an environmental impact analysis mandatory for all major projects 20 years ago. However, corruption has once again prevented the original good intentions from bearing fruit, and pollution and environmental destruction are now worse than ever.

State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar has admitted that many still see the need for an impact analysis as nothing more than a bureaucratic requirement.

In reality, however, an environmental impact analysis should actually be a comprehensive, scientific document that not only serves as a study on environmental feasibility, but also ensures greater cost efficiencies.

"With the problems that exist, it's no wonder that people are skeptical about the benefit of environmental impact analyses. While they are still relevant, the whole area needs to be revitalized," Rachmat said while opening a seminar on Thursday, the first day of Indonesian Environment Week, at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC).

An expert on environmental impact analyses, Soeryo Adiwibowo, said that the analyses were often perceived as commodities, which resulted in poor quality assessments by central and local environmental management agencies.

"Many firms don't even bother to commission analyses. Some just copy them from somewhere else. Meanwhile, some others do commission analyses but don't implement them," said Soeryo, who heads the environmental research center at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB).

The need for the analyses is often seen as an additional cost instead of an effort to protect the public and the environment.

"These problems reflect who we are as a nation: Weak governance and law enforcement, as well as a lack of conscience and competence," Soeryo said.

Not every country requires an environmental impact analysis as a prerequisite for a development. Canada, for instance, requires it, while Singapore does not. Yet, both countries' environmental problems are much less than Indonesia.

To revitalize this area, the most important thing is to enforce the law against violators, Soeryo said, adding that it means that those who do not possess analyses, do not implement them or plagiarize them must be punished.

On the other hand, he urged the government to provide rewards or incentives to those that commissioned impact analyses.

Continuous monitoring was also essential to ensure that the analyses were actually complied with.

As for the business community, Soeryo said there should be a paradigm shift to perceiving impact analyses as being beneficial, instead of solely as an additional cost.

He said that 52 studies conducted around the world showed that environmental impact analyses actually saved project costs amounting to up to US$300 million per year.

"An impact analysis needs to be seen as a feasibility study. It requires some money, true, but it will provide benefits through the modifications made to the project based on the study," he said.