{"id":6586,"date":"2020-11-04T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/?p=6586"},"modified":"2021-07-26T11:04:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T11:04:09","slug":"indonesias-new-omnibus-law-trades-green-growth-for-environmental-ruin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/2020\/11\/04\/indonesias-new-omnibus-law-trades-green-growth-for-environmental-ruin\/","title":{"rendered":"Indonesia\u2019s New Omnibus Law Trades \u2018Green Growth\u2019 for Environmental Ruin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The new legislation will do irreparable harm to Indonesia\u2019s environment. It could well turn away foreign investors, too.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Indonesian parliament gambled that its hasty approval<\/a> of a controversial economic stimulus plan<\/a> on October 5 would effectively mitigate public anger<\/a> about its problematic labor and environmental provisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It clearly miscalculated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, thousands of Indonesian citizens across the archipelago have taken to the streets in mass protest<\/a> over the economic stimulus \u201cOmnibus Law\u2019s\u201d substance<\/a>, its multiple procedural flaws<\/a> and the absence<\/a> of meaningful public consultation on its implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indonesian legislators and the government of President Joko \u201cJokowi\u201d Widodo pitched<\/a> the new law \u2013 which involved the insertion of 174 new articles into 79 existing laws<\/a> governing areas including taxation, labor, investment and the environment \u2013 as an essential job-creating antidote<\/a> to the country\u2019s pandemic-induced economic slump<\/a>. The cost of that stimulus? Long-term environmental damage that will sabotage the economic gains of the agribusiness sector\u2019s tentative moves toward sustainability<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new law has provisions that remove legal protections for primary forest cover, raising the risk of massive deforestation. It loosens requirements for environmental impact assessments<\/a> for industrial and agribusiness projects and empowers<\/a> the central government to approve business and investment in officially designated forest and peatland areas, which are currently protected by a moratorium on deforestation. The law also eliminates<\/a> the legal requirement that provinces maintain a minimum forest cover of 30 percent on provincial land by allowing them to set such standards \u201cproportionately.\u201d And it raises the regional risk of catastrophic haze<\/a> from plantation fires by lifting<\/a> the existing strict legal liability for companies with fires occurring on their concession areas. An analysis of these provisions by the Indonesian think tank Madani<\/a> underscores their potentially disastrous impacts, including  the complete destruction<\/a> of natural forest cover in the provinces of Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, Bangka Belitung and Central Java over the next three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law\u2019s pro-deforestation elements aren\u2019t just a clear and present danger to Indonesia\u2019s remaining rainforests. They directly contradict the Jokowi government\u2019s explicit embrace of a \u201cgreen growth\u201d<\/a> economic development model premised on \u201chealthier, more productive ecosystems,\u201d which hinges on \u201cthe belief that economic growth and environmental sustainability are not merely compatible objectives\u2026[but] essential for the future of humankind.\u201d Sadly, the law\u2019s pro-deforestation elements will effectively reverse the Indonesian government\u2019s achievements in recent years in protecting its forests. That includes the August 2010 enactment of a permanent moratorium<\/a> on forest clearing for timber and plantation development that helped reduce deforestation in Indonesia in 2019 to its lowest levels<\/a> in almost two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indonesian government had powerful private sector accomplices in trading its \u201cGreen Growth\u201d aspirations for an economic stimulus hinged to accelerated deforestation. \u00a0Indonesia\u2019s palm-oil sector, whose exports constitute more than 2 percent<\/a>\u00a0of Indonesia\u2019s annual gross domestic product, either adopted a stance of complicit silence<\/a> or undertook active cheerleading<\/a> of the law\u2019s passage. Joko Supriyono, Vice-President Director<\/a> of Astra Agro Lestari, Indonesia\u2019s second-largest palm-oil producer and\u00a0Chairman<\/a>\u00a0of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI), described<\/a> GAPKI\u2019s support for the law as essential to \u201cthe interests of the national palm oil sector.\u201d In fact, that support effectively disavows the progress that the palm oil sector \u2013 Astra included \u2013 has made in recent years to expunge its well-earned reputation<\/a>\u00a0as a major driver of forest destruction by\u00a0implementing<\/a>\u00a0\u201cNo Deforestation, No Peatland, No Exploitation\u201d (NDPE) policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Indonesian government and the rogue elements of the country\u2019s palm oil sector have misinterpreted unfettered exploitation of forests as a reliable economic growth driver. Instead, the pro-deforestation provisions of the new law are likely to stigmatize Indonesia among investors and importers increasingly conscious of environmental sustainability standards. In July, a coalition of Indonesian environmental and civil society groups warned in a public letter<\/a> to domestic and international financiers that the bill\u2019s passage would mean that \u201cIndonesian\u200b\u200b current laws and regulations will no longer\u200b\u200b comply\u200b\u200b with\u200b\u200b globally accepted\u200b\u200b environmental and social safeguards.\u201d That same month, the World Bank\u2019s Indonesia and Timor-Leste country director, Satu Kahkonen, cautioned<\/a> that the Omnibus Bill would \u201cmove Indonesia\u2019s environmental legislation further away from the implementation of best practices.\u201d Those warnings appear prophetic.  On October 5, a grouping of global investors managing $4.1 trillion in assets issued a letter<\/a> to the Indonesian government stating their concerns about \u201cthe negative impact of certain environmental protection measures affected by the Omnibus Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indonesia\u2019s palm oil sector is particularly vulnerable to blowback from importers due to the new law\u2019s problematic environmental provisions. Major palm oil importers including the European Union<\/a> and United Kingdom<\/a> are considering increasingly more stringent environmental standards for agricultural imports, including palm oil. And it\u2019s not only governments demanding tighter restrictions on imports linked to deforestation. On October 5, a grouping of 21 international firms including McDonald\u2019s, Nestl\u00e9, Tesco and Unilever issued a statement<\/a> urging the U.K. government to extend its proposed anti-deforestation agricultural import legislation to include commodities produced as a result of  both legal and illegal deforestation. The companies argued<\/a> that \u201crestricting action to illegal deforestation would not achieve halting the loss of natural ecosystems, especially when governments have discretion to decide what is legal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indonesian government has made a profound strategic error by applying a mid-20th<\/sup> century economic problem-solving template premised on ruthless environmental exploitation for economic gain to a 21st-century economic reality that is increasingly geared to economic sustainability principles. The government can address that error by formulating the new law\u2019s specific implementing regulations in close consultation with environmental and civil society organizations to mitigate its malign implications for the country\u2019s forests. And the private sector \u2013 particularly palm oil firms \u2013 should refrain from taking advantage of the lower environmental standards embodied in the new law and instead reaffirm and strictly enforce NDPE policies. Failure to do so may well condemn Indonesia to become the Brazil of Asia \u2013 a country that knowingly trades away its environmental treasures for the ashes and haze of self-destructive short-term economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/thediplomat.com\/2020\/10\/indonesias-new-omnibus-law-trades-green-growth-for-environmental-ruin\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new legislation will do irreparable harm to Indonesia\u2019s environment. It could well turn away foreign investors, too. The Indonesian parliament gambled that its hasty approval of a controversial economic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6587,"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586\/revisions\/6587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zmv.si\/geoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}