LBH Padang Files Complaint with UN Regarding Environmental Failures in Sumatra
The Padang Legal Aid Institute (LBH Padang) is bringing the issue of ecological disasters afflicting Sumatra to the international stage. The legal aid organisation has officially submitted a special report to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as a form of moral and political lawsuit against the state’s failure in environmental governance.
The report, titled “Dismantling State-Engineered Eco-Catastrophes: The Sumatran Citizen Lawsuit (CLS) as Strategic Litigation Against Environmental Governance Failure”, was submitted in response to a call for thematic input regarding the role of the judiciary in handling the climate crisis. This issue is scheduled for discussion during the 58th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Through this report, LBH Padang presents field facts, spatial analysis, and data regarding ecological damage caused by major floods and landslides that hit Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra in late 2025. These disasters resulted in at least 1,207 deaths, left 137 people missing, and damaged more than 184,000 homes.
LBH Padang argues that these tragedies cannot be viewed solely as the impact of extreme weather or global climate change. “The government always hides behind the narrative of extreme weather to avoid legal responsibility. However, spatial analysis proves that this crisis is a disaster produced by exploitative state policies in upstream areas,” stated Habieb Aulia Sufi from the Living Space and People’s Movement division of LBH Padang.
Based on collected data, since 1990, the island of Sumatra has lost at least 9.19 million hectares of natural forest cover due to state-legalised land conversion. Conversely, the expansion of corporate palm oil plantations has surged by 480 per cent, rising from 1.06 million hectares in 1990 to over 6.22 million hectares in 2024.
The report also highlights land ownership inequality. The 2023 Agricultural Census shows that 99.98 per cent of agricultural units in Sumatra are dominated by smallholder farmers who control less than 21 per cent of the remaining land. In contrast, 96 corporate entities control more than 380,000 hectares of upstream areas through State Land Use Rights (HGU) schemes.
The economic impact at the regional level is stark. In Aceh, economic losses due to disasters reached Rp2.04 trillion. This figure is twice as large as the total Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) from the mining sector in the region, which is approximately Rp929 billion per year.
This reporting to the UN is part of a strategy to strengthen the Citizen Lawsuit currently underway at the Jakarta Administrative Court against the President of Indonesia. LBH Padang is urging the UN to monitor the trial and encourage the Indonesian government to conduct a thorough spatial audit and implement a moratorium on new extractive industry permits in upstream areas.