Indonesia: Govt aims for strict liability but lighter punishments for forest burning

Hans Nicholas Jong, The Jakarta Post 9 Nov 15;

The government is mulling whether to implement strict liability in its legal action against individuals or companies whose forest concessions are burning, in a bid to provide more of a deterrent effect, though at the same time, aiming to stop prosecution of offenders.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry said that the strict liability concept could be applied in the future, to more easily hold offending individuals or companies responsible.

“We are studying this concept of absolute responsibility at the moment. If a concession is burning, we could implement [this concept] and impose administrative sanctions, but not in front of the courts,” the ministry’s law enforcement director general Rasio Ridho Sani said.

He was responding to suggestions made by law experts regarding how to stop individuals or companies conducting the slash-and-burn practices that caused annual land and forest fires in Indonesia.

Dewi Pelitawati from Padjadjaran University law community said that Indonesia already recognized the concept in the Law No. 32/2009 on environment.

“Our environmental law already contains the strict liability concept. So the tools are there, the regulations are there, we just have to do it,” she said on Friday.

Article 88 of the law states that any person whose actions, businesses and/or activities use hazardous or toxic waste (B3), produce and/or manage toxic waste and/or pose a serious threat to the environment is fully responsible for any damage done without their offences having to be proven.

Firyamanzuri, also from Padjadjaran University law community, said that the article could be used to immediately put the responsibility for fires on the shoulders of the culprits, even though there was no proof that the fires on their concessions were caused by themselves or their negligence.

“But from past cases, the justice system here still uses the practice of burden-of-proof, meaning that the victims are the ones forced to prove that the polluters are guilty,” he said.

However, Rasio said that the interpretation of Article 88 might prevent the government from implementing the strict liability concept in forest fire cases.

“Proving a company guilty is not easy. First, we have to go to the location where the concession is burning. If the concession is vast, then it will be difficult to know the exact position of the fire and only the local people know how to get to the location. Second, it is hard to produce evidence, once the incident has passed, with which to prove who did the burning,” said Rasio.

APP's bottom line takes a hit from Indonesia plantation fires
David Fogarty, The Straits Times AsiaOne 9 Nov 15;

Facing consumer boycotts and prosecution over fires, Indonesian pulpwood giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is also suffering economic losses from the fires damaging its plantations, say the company and a report by a green group.

The fires in Indonesia have burned more than two million hectares, the government says, destroying forests, farmland as well as damaging oil palm and pulpwood plantations. The haze and drought will also likely reduce yields for oil palm and rubber crops, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. For APP, the fires could prove costly and affect supplies of pulpwood to its mills, particularly a US$2.6 billion (S$3.7 billion) pulp mill under construction in South Sumatra.

Eyes on the Forest (EoF), a coalition of Indonesian non-governmental organisations (NGOs), released a report last Thursday showing satellite imagery of recent fires in three large APP supplier concessions in South Sumatra, one of the areas worst affected by fires. The time series imagery shows the before and after shots of fires, some of which appear to have burned both forest and acacia plantations on a large scale.

The concessions, belonging to Bumi Andalas Permai, Bumi Mekar Hijau and Sebangun Bumi Andalas Wood Industries, cover about 530,000ha, EoF says - or more than seven times the size of Singapore.

All three firms received "Preventative Measures Notices" from Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) for possible transgressions of the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act.

"Some of the areas burned were originally acacia plantations, visible as light to dark green with grids of peat canals. Intense fire flames and many high-confidence fire hot spots in the area up to now seem to suggest that some of the acacia trees were burned," said EoF, which specialises in monitoring oil palm and pulpwood companies in Sumatra.

The NGO alliance said it was not yet possible to determine the size of the areas burned but said the damage could be significant.

In a response to e-mailed questions, Ms Aniela Maria, APP's deputy director for Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement, confirmed the fires had affected its plantations. "However, we have not yet completed verifications and do not want to speculate. The verifications of areas affected will be done together with the government of Indonesia," she said.

"As for business impact, availability of pulpwood plantation will directly impact our pulp production. How much of this will be impacted will need to be reviewed once verifications are completed."

She said APP would restore natural forest areas affected by fire.

The company, Indonesia's largest pulp and paper firm and which controls 2.6 million hectares of concessions, has come under pressure because of the large number of fires on land both it and its supplier companies own. EoF says 39 per cent of all high-confidence hot spots in Sumatra and 53 per cent of all high-confidence hot spots on Sumatra's peatlands were on APP concessions. Bumi Mekar Hijau is being sued by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for 7.8 trillion rupiah (S$780 million) for fires on its concessions last year and has been named again by the Indonesian police as a suspect for the recent fires.

Last Thursday, APP announced it was stepping up fire-fighting and prevention efforts and boosting its preparedness for next year.


Misinformation? He clears the air with openness
Francis Chan and Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja AsiaOne 10 Nov 15;

An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 strikes the eastern Indonesian island of Aloron on Wednesday.

Two days later, a Boeing 737 passenger jet skids off a runway in Yogyakarta's Adisucipto Airport.

Thousands of people remain stranded at other terminals across the eastern part of Indonesia, after hundreds of flights were delayed over the weekend due ash clouds from a volcanic eruption in Lombok last month.

All that even as relief operations continue in Kalimantan and Sumatra, as millions in South-east Asia wait with bated breath, wondering if the haze crisis is finally over.

That in a nutshell is Dr Sutopo Purwo Nugroho's week. Want proof? Follow him on Twitter, where he is usually first with an alert in the event of a disaster, followed by an analysis of the situation.

As head of data and information at Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), it is his job to be on top of such incidents so that the Indonesian government can make informed decisions as it coordinates relief or rescue efforts.

"When disaster strikes, I immediately need to know 'who, when, what, why and how', so that we can plan what next," said Dr Sutopo.

The 46-year-old is arguably the single most quoted official in the media during this year's haze crisis.

This after he developed a reputation for being a straight-shooter when it comes to sharing information with the media and public - instead of allowing bureaucracy to dilute or, worse, bury the facts.

"I choose to tell the public what is really happening on the ground because people should know the truth," he said during an interview with The Straits Times at the BNPB headquarters on Friday. "Also, in this age of transparency, where there are so many media outlets, we would look funny if we try to cover things up."

His weapon of choice as the de facto spokesman for the agency is social media because the battleground for information is the Internet, where he said facts can often be misconstrued, leaving people with more questions than answers.

That is why he regularly shares raw information - from air pollution levels to satellite images of wind and weather patterns, to photos and videos of relief operations - via platforms such as Twitter, Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and WhatsApp.

But to remain credible, he makes it a point not to self-censor and avoids delivering only sanitised versions of the truth, said Dr Sutopo.

An example of him walking the talk is a photo he tweeted recently. It showed oil palm seedlings lining up neatly over an orang utan sanctuary in Central Kalimantan, which had just been cleared by fire.

The photo, shared by users of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, went viral. It was also picked up by Greenpeace, but it was quickly refuted by Indonesia's palm oil trade association, which claimed it was a victim of a smear campaign.

"When we broadcast to the public, it assures people that the government is aware and on top of things," added Dr Sutopo.

An alumnus of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and Bogor Agriculture Institute, where he completed his PhD in natural resources and environment management, he became the voice of BNPB by chance.

"In my first year at BNPB, there were three disasters, but we had no one who understood disaster management and could handle the media at the same time," he said.

"And we really felt that it was important for BNPB to disclose information on the incidents to the public in a more timely manner."

In the early days, Dr Sutopo would call for briefings at BNPB, but his openness made him the first phone call for journalists whenever a crisis breaks, he said. "Disasters in Indonesia have a habit of happening on weekends, when offices are closed, but I'm not closed and my friends in the media know that and, very often, a TV crew will appear outside my house with their (mobile satellite vehicle) waiting for me to say something," said Dr Sutopo.

"The roads in my neighbourhood are narrow, so I felt guilty that my neighbours are disturbed, but they now understand."

He quickly recognised that, instead of being a threat, social media can be a "force multiplier" and as BBM was the communique of choice for most people in Indonesia, why not use it to broadcast updates, he thought.

Dr Sutopo has since evolved his communications operations and, as the agency's spokesman, now manages several chat groups on WhatsApp and BBM, comprising colleagues from BNPB and others from the police, military and ministries, as well as hundreds of journalists.

Carrying multiple mobile phones is also now par for the course for him and his team of 28, comprising many young graduates who he mentors. "I won't be here in this position forever," he said.

"My staff are the future leaders, so I have to share knowledge and whatever I know with them."

Although he is now at the peak of his career in the civil service, he wants junior officers to remember that their obligation is still to the people and he has a story on how no task is too small, even for a senior official such as himself.

"One day, an elderly woman in Yogyakarta called me to say her cat had climbed up a tree and would not come back down, and asked for help," he quipped. "So I sent a team in to help her and the cat was rescued. We do these things too."