Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – In June, when flooding and landslides devastated cities in Central Java, including Banjarnegara, renowned University of Indonesia sociologist and lecturer Imam B. Prasodjo said he felt the need to act to help the victims.
Imam asked permission to use illegally logged teak, kept at the Central Java Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), to rebuild houses and schools in the affected regions.
"I asked for 409.33 cubic meters of timber to build schools and houses destroyed by the landslide in Banjarnegara. The victims reached out to me to make this request," he said.
However, his request was denied by the Environment and Forestry Ministry's ecosystem and natural resources conservation directorate general. The ministry argued that Law No. 18/2013 on deforestation prevention and management stipulated that timber from illegal deforestation in conservation forests had to be destroyed, if not being used as courtroom evidence.
This prompted Imam, journalist Andy F. Noya and environmentalist Ully Sigar Rusady to file a judicial review against the 2013 law at the Constitutional Court.
Imam said he believed that Article 41 of the law, which outlined the policy, contradicted Article 33 Item 3 of the 1945 Constitution, which said that "Earth, water and natural resources are controlled by the state and should be utilized for the sake of people's welfare."
He further argued the 2013 law was not currently implemented as the majority of illegal timber sat idly at the conservation agency because the government did not have the budget to destroy it.
"I spoke with the director general who said the ministry does not have the financial resources to destroy the illegally forested timber. Instead, they are paying the maintenance cost. If the timber isn't used as legal evidence nor has it been destroyed, then why don't we use it?"
According to data from the Education Ministry, there were 149,552 elementary and junior high school classrooms damaged in 2015.
Imam asked the court to make it legal for people to use timber from conservation forests for social and educational philanthropic purposes.
On Wednesday, the court held the first hearing of the case during which Imam and his team of lawyers presented their stance on the issue.
After they presented their case, justice Patrialis Akbar said that he appreciated the attempt at judicial review. He agreed that trees should not be wasted as they were blessings from God. "[God] gave us these blessings, why burn them?" he said after citing a Quran article stating that trees are blessings from God.
Chief justice Arief Hidayat said that the plaintiffs should think carefully about the implications of the judicial review, such as the possibilities of hindering ongoing legal cases on deforestation. "If the court process is ongoing the evidence can been used [for other purposes]. This could result in pandemonium," he said.