Jakarta, Ekuatorial – To overcome flooding complaints related to environment and forestry issues, Ministry of Environment and Forestry formed a team comprise of experts to help solve cases, said Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya, in Jakarta, on Thursday (12/3).
The team for handling environment and forestry cases, which was already formed in January 2015, is led by Himsar Sirait, Deputy of Legal Compliance and Prie Supriadi, Inspector General.
In addition, the team is also backed up by high profile experts and activists as steering committee, such as Sandra Moniaga, commissioner of National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), Chalid Muhammad, director of Indonesian Green Institute, Abdon Nababan, secretary general of Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), Sri Palupi, chair of Institute for Ecosoc Rights, Noer Fauzi Rachman, an agrarian expert, and Agus Pambagio, an expert on public policy.
“The government could not possibly [handle cases] by itself. We need help. This team was formed because we need independency. If we just rely on bureaucrats to deal with these cases, mostly they would just ‘shrug off’ [these cases] for the sake of procedure or regulations, even sometimes, they simplify matters,” said Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya.
Hence, she added, the team comprised of activists and experts so cases can be approached independently and can reach fair decisions.
Up to date, the ministry had received 143 complaints, — 43 letters, ten emails, 31 SMS, 13 complaints through website, five direct complaints, and one telephone –.
From those cases, 71 cases are related to environment, 69 cases are related to forestry, and three are non-environment and forestry.
Noer Fauzi Rachman, an agrarian expert, said that the team was a new approach from the ministry for solving environment and forestry related cases.
“This is a new approach because old ways no longer could contain or solve cases. The new way is asking those victimized by bureaucracy which tend to refuse to look at consequences from their policies,” said Rachman warning the ministry to be prepared for wave of complaints in the future.
Meanwhile, Sandra Moniaga, a National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) commissioner, underlined the need to review policies.
“I am pretty sure that thousands of cases will come in [to the ministry]. It means that there should be analysis to assess those cases and fix the policy. So, we don’t have to solve it case by case but tackle it with one policy,” said Moniaga. Fidelis E. Satriastanti
