Jakarta – The Indonesian government has lost a Rp 7.8 trillion ($565 million) lawsuit brought against a pulp and paper company accused of setting fires that razed 20,000 hectares of land in South Sumatra last year.
Bumi Mekar Hijau, a subsidiary of the Sinar Mas conglomerate, is the first of dozens of pulp and palm oil companies being pursued by the Environment and Forestry Ministry for slash-and-burn clearing.
Activists say Wednesday's judgment could set a poor precedent for efforts by the government to go after perpetrators whose fires destroyed more than two million hectares of forest this year, generated health-threatening haze over vast swaths of Sumatra and Kalimantan, and led to record levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
In its ruling, the Palembang District Court declared that the Environment Ministry did not have a valid case against Bumi Mekar Hijau. Judge Parlas Nababan also ordered the ministry to pay Rp 10 million in legal costs to the company.
In October, the ministry filed suit against Bumi Mekar Hijau, which owns pulpwood concessions in South Sumatra's Ogan Komering Ilir district, demanding that the company pay the state Rp 7.8 trillion for damages it allegedly incurred by illegally setting 20,000 hectares of land ablaze.
It also named the company's executives as respondents in the suit, which meant they could have faced criminal charges carrying prison sentences of up to 10 years.
Rasio Ridho Sani, the director general for law enforcement at the Environment Ministry, told reporters after the hearing that his office would appeal against the ruling. "We are fighting for the justice for the people who suffered from the haze and forest fires," he said on Wednesday as quoted by Tribunnews.com.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) also expressed its disappointment at the ruling. "Legal order and justice for the environment and the people have been destroyed," the group wrote on its Facebook page.
The case against Bumi Mekar Hijau was seen as a major test of Indonesia's law enforcement institutions against companies accused of slash-and-burn forest clearing, in large part because of the high profile of holding group Sinar Mas, which has interests in pulp and paper, palm oil, property and banking.
The fires this year alone cost the Indonesian government Rp 221 trillion, or 1.9 percent of its GDP, in just five months, according to the World Bank – a figure higher than the cost of rebuilding Aceh after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/bid-justice-forest-fires-government-falls-first-hurdle/