Is it the legal system or the law enforcement that is contributing to the environmental destruction in Indonesia?
I believe that the current exploitative policy has contributed to the damage. We also haven’t seen any political will from the government, especially from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to enforce environmental restoration programs, which I believe can reduce the number of ecological disasters in the country. In 2006, we had 135 ecological disasters such as flooding, tsunamis, earthquakes, forest fires and harvest failures. The disasters have taken more than 10,000 lives, and left more than one million people homeless. The total loss reaches tens or even hundreds of trillions rupiah. Our law enforcement is also very weak. The authorities still haven’t charged any of the key people in the top management levels of offending companies or organizations, but are just targeting the operational level. Even worse, courts have set illegal loggers free in more than 70 percent of total cases. I think the government needs to carry out fundamental corrections in its forestry policy in order to
