Indonesia is putting business before the environment and that could be disastrous for its rainforests

(CNN) – Last week, Indonesia’s parliament passed a controversial and comprehensive jobs law that environmentalists say will have a disastrous impact on the country’s forests and rich biodiversity.

The general job creation law was intended to simplify Indonesia’s complex web of overlapping regulations to make it easier for companies to do business in the country. It includes changes in more than 70 laws in the labor, business and environmental sectors.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has promised the law will help boost the country’s ailing economy hit by the coronavirus by eliminating red tape and red tape to attract foreign investment and create jobs in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. .

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in the capital Jakarta and other cities in a three-day nationwide strike against the reforms, with protesters, unions and rights groups saying the law undermines workers’ rights. On Thursday, protesters clashed violently with police, who fired tear gas and water cannons in an attempt to disperse crowds in central Jakarta.

The human rights group Amnesty International called the law “catastrophic”, saying the bill was hastily passed by parliament without meaningful public consultation and criticized the drafting process as opaque. Amnesty Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid said in a statement that the law “will damage workers’ wallets, job security and their human rights as a whole.”

Union and Muslim groups are preparing to challenge the law in court and another wave of protests is expected this week, according to Reuters.

But while the protests have focused on concerns about labor rights, environmentalists say the law relaxes environmental protections and could lead to widespread deforestation and habitat loss.

Indonesia’s rainforests are the third largest in the world after the Amazon and the Congo Basin in Africa and are ecologically important for their rich biodiversity, with animals including elephants, clouded leopards, sun bears and the critically endangered orangutan. .

Deforestation is already driving many species to extinction and environmentalists warn that the law could give them a “strong push to the limit,” said Phelim Kine, senior director for Asia for the environmental campaign group Mighty Earth.

Why Environmentalists Are Concerned

Indonesia supplies more than half of the world’s palm oil, and the industry contributes about 2.4% of the country’s GDP. But the industry is one of the main causes of deforestation in Indonesia and palm oil has had a devastating impact on the environment.

The new law will remove the requirement for Indonesian provinces to have 30% forest cover, raising concerns that extractive industries and palm oil plantations could dramatically accelerate land clearing and exacerbate conflicts over land and indigenous rights.

Indonesian environmental group Sustainable Madani Foundation has warned that the law will weaken environmental protections for forests and several provinces that host palm oil plantations, such as Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra, could lose their natural forests entirely within 20 years.

“That’s amazing, it’s the equivalent of telling an American citizen that an American corporation is going to raze Yosemite, or in the UK that they will pave the Lake District. The environmental impacts are almost incalculable,” Kine said.

Borneo is burning: how global demand for palm oil is driving deforestation in Indonesia

In addition to concerns, companies were previously liable for environmental damage in their concessions, whether they were at fault or not. But environmentalists say these “strict liability” provisions are now vague and that evidence of wrongdoing is now required to prosecute the company.

Officials say this is to provide legal certainty in criminal investigations, according to Reuters, but environmentalists are concerned it will weaken laws aimed at prosecuting companies that cause wildfires.

“We fear that changes in the accountability mechanism will blur the lines in the trial and hamper law enforcement on the issue of wildfires,” said Grita Anindarini, a researcher at the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law.

Intense forest fires caused by burning land ravage Indonesia every year, and the toxic haze spreads to Malaysia and Singapore. Farmland is burned to prepare for next year’s harvest and to clear forests, and carbon-rich peat burns for weeks, creating a health crisis with disastrous consequences for the climate crisis.

Indonesian Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said on Twitter that the rights of indigenous peoples and those living in forest areas have greater protection under the new law and that the obligations for companies to maintain forest areas will be in fact stricter.

‘Big setback in environmental law’

Activists say the law makes changes to several other key environmental rules, including removing environmental reviews for many new projects.

It also integrates environmental permits with commercial permits and compliance monitoring will now be “risk-based.”

Companies would previously need to complete an environmental impact assessment, called AMDAL, to assess the impact their project would have on the environment and local communities. Now, only companies whose activities pose a “high risk” to the environment will need to obtain this license.

“The government said that high risk means that the activities (of the companies) will have a significant impact on the environment, and if it has high risk activities it must carry out an environmental impact assessment,” said Grita, adding that it is not clear what constitutes a high risk. risky activity or how a company will be judged.

According to Grita, companies now only need to consult those “directly affected” by the project, raising concerns that local people and environmental defenders will be left out of the consultation process. “It is not very clear who is directly affected,” he said.

The new rules have raised fears that the system of checks and balances for those who pollute or exploit the environment will diminish.

This is a “major setback in environmental law,” Grita said.

But Environment Minister Siti said the law makes it easier for the government to revoke business permits for companies that undermine environmental laws.

“By combining the processing of the AMDAL license with the processing of commercial permits, if a company violates it, the government can revoke both at the same time,” said the minister on her official Twitter account.

He went on to say that corporations “gambling” in forest areas will be subject to “strict criminal penalties.”

Going forward

Environmentalists say Indonesia could have seized the opportunity to recover its economy in a sustainable way.

“They could have made it a golden region for green economic growth with forest cover and biodiversity treated as priceless assets rather than items to be looted,” Kine said.

Reuters reported that banks such as Citibank and ANZ have said that if the employment law is implemented well, there will be a better investment climate for Indonesia.

But others within the industry say it can backfire. A group of 35 global investors managing $ 4.1 trillion in assets issued a letter to the Indonesian government warning of harmful consequences for the environment, according to Reuters.

Grita said Indonesia’s environmental law is “one of the most progressive laws we have” and that progress has been made in recent years to intensify environmental protection, although implementation and monitoring are still weak. The palm oil industry, in particular, has come under pressure from buyers, funders and civil society groups, among others, to reduce deforestation and the destruction of peatlands.

Meanwhile, companies, including Indonesia, are increasingly committing to “No Deforestation, No Peatlands, No Exploitation” (NDPE) policies and major palm oil importers such as the European Union and the United Kingdom are considering standards. stricter for agricultural imports. A UK proposal would ban companies that can’t prove their supply chains aren’t linked to illegal deforestation, and 21 major food companies, including McDonald’s, say the plans should be expanded to apply to all deforestation.

Concerns have also been raised that Indonesia’s new law will move the country’s environmental legislation away from international best practices.

There are calls for the government to repeal the law, and Kine said the focus now will be on ensuring it is implemented in a way that “mitigates the extent of the harm that the law itself can inflict.”

With reports from Reuters.

This story was first published on CNN.com “Indonesia is putting business before the environment and that could be disastrous for its rainforests.”