Jakarta, Ekuatorial – Ministry of Environment and Forestry is planning to set up a working unit in local level to strengthen law enforcement, said a senior official, on Thursday (2/7), in Jakarta.
“We have yet to decide on the form yet but we will either establish a new institution or merge the function into existing institutions. The bottom line is there will be an institution specially dealing with security and law enforcement to crack down environmental and forestry crimes,” said Rasio Ridho Sani, newly appointed director general of law enforcement at the ministry.
The initiative came up, Sani said, because there were lots of environmental and forestry crimes in local level.
“It’s like the tip of the iceberg. There are so many cases in local level but we have seen little results. That’s why we need this new institution,” he said referring to cases occurred in conservation areas and national parks.
Most of these cases are illegal logging, forest encroachment, land use changes, and illegal wildlife trading.
Mangaraja Gunung Nababan, head of Papua Natural Resources Conservation agency, said that it was difficult to catch the real culprit. “Because, this is an organized and systematic crime,” said Nababan.
He cited on recent case of illegal wildlife trade of 7,326 pig-nosed turtles in Timika, Papua which was still under investigation by the police but no suspects have been named.
Sani said that building a case on environmental and forestry crimes were not easy and mostly would take long time. “It’s not easy to prove these crimes. It takes lots of work, time, and science based [arguments]. We also have to work with other institutions which make it look like a slow progress. Some cases would take years [to even to get into trial],” he said.
Out of 90 criminal charges, only eight cases with verdict, six cases on trial, 31 cases in the prosecutors’ hands, one case is still being completed, 10 cases are under further investigation and 34 cases are still being investigated.
Basuki Wasis, a forestry expert of Bogor Agricultural Institute, said the idea to establish an institution might be work but needed strong political boost.
“Establishing it on local level might not work if those cases are related to national, or even more international, companies. They don’t have enough power. It should come from higher political power, such as the president,” he said adding that most of big cases usually can get away easily without punishment. Fidelis E. Satriastanti
