Walhi told to focus on human resources

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) needs to be internally strengthened if it wants to cope with increasingly sophisticated environmental problems, observers say.

Former environment minister Sonny Keraf said on the sidelines of Walhi's 25th anniversary celebration in Jakarta on Saturday that during the past three or four years, the quality and the quantity of Walhi's work had been in decline.

"There were several issues that Walhi was unable to deal with. One of the examples was when the House of Representatives discussed imported toxic waste; Walhi kept silent about it," said Sonny, who is also a member of the House's Commission VII on environmental issues.

"When I talked to Walhi's executives about their silence, they said they didn't have enough human resources and data regarding these problems."

A professor in environmental law at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri, said despite Walhi's achievements in advocating for environmental issues, the organization had failed to develop its human resources.

"Walhi should improve its members' capacity to deal with specific issues. They need to employ specialists in certain fields," Koesnadi said.

He urged Walhi to cooperate with universities to research and advocate for environmental issues.

To ensure Walhi had a better relationship with the government and businesses, Koesnadi suggested the group not always take an adversarial stance.

"Public demand for good corporate governance has been widespread. Several companies have even established their own environmental divisions under their corporate social responsibility departments. This allows Walhi to cooperate with big businesses," he said.

Responding to the criticism, executive director Chalid Muhammad said the organization needed to do a lot of homework to improve its capacity.

He said Walhi was preparing three programs to overcome the problems.

"First, we aim to focus on specific fields, instead of dealing with almost every social issue people wish us to," he told The Jakarta Post.

Walhi would also strive for people's participation in environmental conservation and raise more funds domestically, he said.

"We want to build an inclusive organization and make the country's environmental movement an open, deep-rooted and sustainable activity," he said, adding that one of the strategies was to encourage urban people to become its volunteers, a group called "Sahabat (friends of) Walhi."

Chalid said foreign donors were funding 80 percent of Walhi's operational costs.