Law
Indonesia prosecutors decry ‘lenient’ sentences in palm oil corruption case
JAKARTA — Anticorruption activists in Indonesia have criticized as too lenient the sentences handed down by an Indonesian court against officials at the center of a cooking oil shortage that rocked the world’s top producer of palm oil. A trade ministry official, a prominent economist, and three palm oil executives were on Jan. 4 convicted […]
Their Lives Were Ruined by Oil Pollution, and a Court Awarded Them $9.5 Billion. But Ecuadorians Have Yet to See a Penny From Chevron
Steven Donziger is back in his airy mid-century modern apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, engaged over Zoom on a marketing call with a representative of the online publishing platform Substack. Back and forth, they wrestle with a complicated question—who is Steven Donziger—and quickly realize there is no easy answer. Donziger is a […]
Read MoreIndonesia’s Supreme Court rules President Widodo not liable in 2015 fires
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ruled President Joko Widodo not liable in the disastrous fires in 2015 that devastate large swathes of rainforests and peatlands in the country, despite three previous court rulings that found the president liable for the disaster. In 2016, a group of citizens and environmental activists in the province of […]
The Colorado River Compact Turns 100 Years Old. Is It Still Working?
On a chilly fall day, Eric Kuhn walked along a gravel path above the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The former head of the Colorado River District, a water agency based on the state’s Western Slope, paused where one of its tributaries, the Roaring Fork, spilled into the river, creating a two-tone stream of […]
Read MoreEU ‘moving the goal posts’ with new timber requirement, Indonesia says
BERLIN — Indonesian officials have slammed the European Union’s proposal of a regulation that they say negates more than a decade of progress by the Southeast Asian country to comply with EU sustainable timber rules. Under a voluntary partnership agreement, or VPA, signed in 2011, Indonesia developed a system, known as the SVLK, to verify […]
EU votes to keep woody biomass as renewable energy, ignores climate risk
While forest advocates had high hopes, the EU parliament voted this week not to declassify woody biomass as a renewable energy source, paving the way for more EU, U.S., and Canadian forests to be turned into wood pellets and burned.
In revising its criminal code, Indonesia risks unraveling environmental laws
JAKARTA — An ambitious and long-anticipated plan by Indonesian lawmakers to revise the country’s criminal code, inherited from the Dutch colonial era, could make it much more difficult to prosecute polluting companies, experts warn. The latest draft of the revised penal code, known as the RKUHP, was only recently made publicly available after an uproar […]
No permit? No problem for palm oil company still clearing forest in Papua
JAKARTA — More than 100 Indigenous people in Indonesia’s Papua region are calling on the local government to revoke all the permits of a palm oil company that’s continuing to clear land despite being ordered to halt all activities by officials. The order was issued after the company, PT Permata Nusa Mandiri (PNM), had one […]
As Jakarta chokes on toxic air, Indonesian government stalls on taking action
JAKARTA — Jakarta’s recent episode of world-beating air pollution has highlighted what activists describe as belligerent inaction by the Indonesian government to address the source of the problem, even in the face of a ruling by the nation’s top court ordering it to act. On June 20, readings for PM2.5, a class of airborne pollutants […]
Indonesia’s Sangihe islanders score legal victory over mining company
JAKARTA — Residents of a remote island in eastern Indonesia have won a lawsuit against a company planning to mine gold on their island, after having an earlier legal challenge thrown out on a technicality. In the latest ruling, handed down May 22 and publicized only recently, a court in Manado, North Sulawesi province, ruled […]