Indonesia warned of more pressure on environment
JAKARTA (JP): The advent of free trade in Indonesia is likely to put more pressure on the environment, the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) says.
More competition could result in local businesses lobbying the government to ease environmental regulations to give them an edge over competitors, the group said in its annual report published Saturday.
ICEL said pressure will come from foreign companies that relocate their plants to countries which not only offer low wages but also less stringent environmental regulations.
This does not bode well for Indonesia, said ICEL. Indonesia is already experiencing serious environmental degradation, and it is under pressure to attract as many foreign investors as possible to maintain the momentum of economic development.
According to a World Bank report, by the year 2010, 85 percent of the people on Java will suffer from respiratory tract problems due to intensified industrialization.
ICEL has called on the government to strengthen the nation's environmental laws and regulations, and to ensure their enforcement.
ICEL executive director Mas Achmad Santosa is not optimistic.
"We will continue to have difficulties with law enforcement because environmental conservation is not a priority on the government's political agenda," Achmad told The Jakarta Post.
Environmental issues should be placed on the main political agenda because next year the world will evaluate the progress made since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The evaluation meeting will be held in the same Brazilian city.
Indonesian environmental groups have criticized the Indonesian government for failing to implement a number of summit resolutions.
ICEL urged the government to integrate the recently drawn up Agenda 21 Indonesia, touted as the national's sustainable development strategy, into its various policies.
The agenda should also be included in the 1998-2003 Broad Outline of State Policy (GBHN), Achmad said.
He called for tougher measures to ensure compliance, noting that the current approach of encouraging voluntary compliance, through incentive measures, has not produced results.
The government has introduced a system to rate the performance of factories in ensuring zero or minimum pollution. No company has earned the gold rating for zero pollution, nor has any action been taken against the worst polluters rated black and red.
Government officials claim that market pressures are a more effective means of ensuring industrial compliance than legal or administrative sanctions.
ICEL doubts that public pressure in Indonesia is strong enough to force companies to comply, unlike in the West where consumers are more environmentally-conscious and often boycott products that are not environment friendly.
Limited access to information makes it difficult for consumers to be informed about the products they buy, ICEL said.
ICEL noted that the government this year issued 39 rules pertaining to environmental conservation, which the center calls useless as long as law enforcement remains weak.
In addition, it said, settlements of environmental disputes have been unsatisfactory, which breeds further public skepticism.
The Indonesian media have not given enough coverage to environmental issues, which receive less attention than politics and human rights, it said. (06)