Editorial in Indonesia's Kompas: Tackle transnational environmental crime

Opini saya di Koran Kompas PDF

My editorial to Indonesia's Kompas newspaper, reproduced in English below (similar but not identical to the Indonesian version)

The world is getting smaller -- we can network, communicate and invest more quickly and broadly than ever before. Unfortunately, environmental criminals are also riding the wave of globalisation to exploit new opportunities internationally.

Indonesia's unique rich land and natural resources have long attracted unsustainable, and often illegal, exploitation. Illegal fishing, mining, agricultural expansion, wildlife trafficking and waste disposal continue to yield huge losses for our environment, local communities, and the national economy.

In fact, Indonesia is responsible for many of its own environmental problems. However, recent reports from the United Nations and non-governmental organisations have highlighted how many environmental problems also have international links.

Evidence suggests that overseas investors and companies have been involved in illegal land clearing and resource extraction. For example, there remains strong suspicion that the 2013 peatland fires in Sumatra that resulted in transboundary haze affecting Singapore and Malaysia were, in part, the results of illegal practices by corporate actors with overseas headquarters in Singapore and Malaysia. Research has also highlighted the role of Malaysian companies and investments in illegal logging in Indonesia.

Environmental criminals -- both Indonesians and foreigners -- can also rely on international banks for financing and services, or even to hide corruption and facilitate money laundering. Some environmental crimes, such as illegal wildlife trade and logging, can also involve criminal syndicates with international ties and trade networks, as well as illegal shipments via other countries in the region.

Tackling these types of international linkages will be critical to addressing some of Indonesia's greatest environmental challenges.

In response, we are seeing a proliferation of new voluntary approaches in Indonesia, including corporate commitments to "zero deforestation", oil palm and pulp and paper certification schemes and payments for environmental services. However, there are also growing calls for strengthened environmental enforcement, within Indonesia and overseas. Rule-of-law remains a fundamental strategy for protecting our environment, including from overseas threats.

There are unique challenges to pursuing environmental crimes when they cross national borders. However, Indonesia and dozens of partner countries already hold Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) agreements that allow enforcement agencies to cooperate. These agreement fast-track access to information, evidence and suspects that operate (live, hold accounts in, hold companies in) in other jurisdictions.

Indonesia has signed every relevant international and regional MLA agreement, has domestic MLA legislation (UU No. 1/2006), and has upwards of 125 documented uses of MLA involving 34 countries. These have involved collaborations with partner countries to access evidence, bank records, witnesses, and support with interrogations to help resolve international crimes. Existing MLA actions have helped to resolve dozens of cases of corruption, money laundering, and narcotics.

Critically, there are not yet records of MLA to help protect Indonesia's environment.

Yet, MLA could be a fundamental tool for addressing some of the country and region's most challenging environmental problems, such as illegal commercial fishing, transboundary haze and wildlife trafficking.

Recent headlines have focused on strengthened monitoring of Indonesia's territorial waters and a crack-down on illegal commercial fishing by foreign vessels that degrade Indonesian waters and deprive the country of billions of rupia in annual revenues. Meaningfully pursuing these cases - to prosecute not only the boat crews but the corporations and financiers supporting them -- will require new international collaboration to collect evidence and attempt to recover assets.

This mirrors efforts to strengthen enforcement of forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia. Singapore, for example, recently established new legislation to prosecute Singapore-based actors responsible for fires in Indonesia that result in transboundary haze. However, this legislation responds to acts within Indonesia, and can only be reasonably operationalised through collaborative collection of evidence, enabled via MLA.

Indonesia is also central to the global wildlife trade, including for its remaining critically endangered tigers and Sumatran rhinos, valuable hardwood trees, and for hundreds of rare reptiles and ornamental plant species that are in demand among international collectors. Evidence suggests that this often trade involves international trafficking networks, with links to Singapore, the United States and Malaysia. Cracking these transnational networks will require sharing information about bank accounts, corporations and witness that operate outside of Indonesia.

However, Mutual Legal Assistance also has clear limitations. Effective MLA is restricted by the same governance limitations that affect other areas of enforcement and criminal justice in Indonesia. A lack of human and financial resources, and entrenched abuse of power and corruption, also limit the potential of MLA to tackle challenging environmental problems.

Effective MLA is also limited by some technical barriers. For example, partner countries need to agree on what constitutes a crime in order to cooperate on MLA. Domestic legislation on logging in Singapore and Hong Kong differs from Indonesian legal notions of crime, which can restrict their cooperation through MLA. Indonesia and Singapore also have long-standing debates over extraditions and financial transparency. However, even in these cases, international MLA agreements are pushing for increased cooperation based on goodwill and collaborative spirit.

Indeed, successful MLA relies on collaborative spirit. Challenges such as transboundary haze, in which multiple countries have clear vested interests, represent perfect opportunities to engage in MLA.

There is clear scope to raise awareness, and capacity among Indonesian enforcement and justice bodies on MLA to address environmental crimes. Protecting Indonesia's environmental and valuable natural resources from outside pressures will also require strengthened efforts at home. Despite implementation challenges, MLA could prove a fundamental tool for addressing critical challenges facing Indonesia's environment and sustainable development future.

#law #enforcement #mutuallegalassistance