Legal actions resumes 21 March 2012
Summations by the Prosecution and Defence
Wahli Aceh vs Aceh Governor / PT Kallista Alam
PTUN Banda Aceh
Jln. Mohd. Thaher No. 25
Lueng Bata
Banda Aceh
Aceh
Indonesia
• “This is really a test case,” said Chik Rini, a World Wildlife Fund campaigner, “it’s not uncommon for timber, pulp, paper and palm oil companies to raze trees in protected areas, few developments occur in areas that seem so obviously off limits.”
On November 11, 2011, Legal action was launched against Aceh Governor and a major palm oil company, PT Kallista Alam in relation to an alleged illegal palm oil concession granted inside protected forest in Tripa, Aceh Province, Indonesia.
• “I spent four years in Aceh during the tsunami reconstruction. Opening up Kuala Tripa — an area with high conservation value and home to many animals endemic to Indonesia — is a grave mistake,” said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, (Chief of REDD+ Taskforce) who was the architect of Aceh’s reconstruction after a major earthquake and tsunami devastated the province in 2004. “While we recognise the need for the palm oil industry to also grow, signing an agreement with a palm oil company to allow the conversion of protected peat land into palm oil plantations, very clearly breaks the moratorium,”
This legal action sets an important precedent as the concession in Tripa is part of over 3.5 million hectares of forest and peatlands originally under protection through Presidential Instruction 10/2011, but subsequently excluded from protection in the first revision of the map accompanying the Presidential Instruction and a multi billion dollar agreement between Norway and Indonesia.
Since reporting the case, and testifying in court, local villagers claim to have felt increased intimidation, and escalating tension in the region. There is an atmosphere of fear in Tripa after a community member was shot 1 year ago, allegedly at the hands of Brimob, hired by palm oil companies to act as private security.
(Today, 21/03/12) the court room will hear closing statements from both defense and prosecution. 1 week later the judges decision will be delivered.
• 21 March 2012, Summations by the Prosecution and Defence (Penggugat, Tergugat I dan Tergugat II Intervensi).
• 28 March 2012, Decision on the case by the Judges Council. On this date the hearings will be over and the decision known.
Media coverage of the Tripa legal action has been plentiful and heard worldwide, below is some examples of this.
Aceh governor inks permit for palm oil firm to clear swamp
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/indonesias-aceh-breaches-forest-clearing-moratorium
JAKARTA – Indonesia (Reuters)
* Moratorium breach “grave mistake” — senior govt official
* Aceh government says did nothing wrong
By Olivia Rondonuwu
JAKARTA, Dec 8 (Reuters) – The governor of Indonesia’s Aceh province has breached a ban on clearing forests that is at the heart of a $1 billion climate deal with Norway, earning a rebuke by a senior government official on Thursday.
The two-year moratorium on issuing permits to log and convert forests, effective from May this year, is meant to protect primary forests and peatlands in the Asian country in a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
About 80 percent of Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions stem from deforestation and land use change, with the rapidly expanding palm oil, timber, agriculture and mining sectors driving forest loss.
Aceh’s governor Irwandi Yusuf signed a permit to let PT Kallista Alam to develop 1,605 hectares (4,000 acres) of swamp, which includes protected peatlands, in Nagan Raya district for palm oil plantations, a document obtained by Reuters showed. The company is based in Medan, North Sumatra, but does not have a website or information on ownership.
The head of UKP4, a body monitoring the implementation of the moratorium, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto criticised the decision in a statement emailed to Reuters. Mangkusubroto is a respected technocrat and is head of the government’s oversight body.
“I spent four years in Aceh during the tsunami reconstruction. Opening up Kuala Tripa — an area with high conservation value and home to many animals endemic to Indonesia — is a grave mistake,” said Mangkusubroto, who was the architect of Aceh’s reconstruction after a major earthquake and tsunami devastated the province in 2004.
The Aceh breach illustrates the problem Southeast Asia’s top economy faces in balancing economic development and powerful business interests with conserving nature, as well as a policy gap between the central government and local administrations.
Yusuf, who is expected to run again in a governor election next year, signed the permit on Aug. 25, three months after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed the decree for the moratorium.
“While we recognise the need for the palm oil industry to also grow, signing an agreement with a palm oil company to allow the conversion of protected peat land into palm oil plantations, very clearly breaks the moratorium,” Mangkusubroto added.
The Aceh government had followed correct procedures for issuing the permit, said spokesman Usamah El Madny.
Mangkusubroto urged the provincial government to reassess the decision and find alternative land for palm oil development.
A local green group, the Aceh chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), said a court hearing had started this week seeking to have the permit revoked.
WALHI Aceh’s head Teuku Muhammad Zulfikar said opening up the swamp was threatening endangered orangutan.
Norway’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Eivind Homme, told Reuters he was surprised by news of the breach and called on the national government to investigate.
Nigeria, Indonesia and North Korea have the world’s highest rates of deforestation, a global ranking released last month showed. (Additional reporting by Reza Munawir in Aceh; Editing by David Fogarty and Jonathan Thatcher)
http://climate.aib.org.uk/actionbar/114823
ACEH, Indonesia (AP) The man known as Indonesia’s “green governor” chases the roar of illegal chainsaws through plush jungles in his own Jeep. He goes door-to-door to tell families it’s in their interest to keep trees standing.
That’s why 5,000 villagers living the edge of a rich, biodiverse peat swamp in his tsunami-ravaged Aceh province feel so betrayed.
Their former hero recently gave a palm oil company a permit to develop land in one of the few places on earth where orangutans, tigers and bears still can be found living side-by-side violating Indonesia’s new moratorium on concessions in primary forests and peatlands.
“Why would he agree to this?” said Ibduh, a 50-year village chief, days after filing a criminal complaint against Aceh Gov. Irwandi Yusuf.
“It’s not just about the animals,” he said, men around him nodding. “Us too. Our lives are ruined if this goes through.”
Irwandi a former rebel whose life story is worthy of a Hollywood film maintains the palm oil concession is by the book and that he would never do anything to harm his province.
But critics say there is little doubt he broke the law.The charges against him illustrate the challenges facing countries like Indonesia in their efforts to fight climate change by protecting the world’s tropical jungles which would spit more carbon when burned than planes, automobiles and factories combined.
Despite government promises, what happens on the ground is often a different story. Murky laws, graft and mismanagement in the forestry sector and shady dealings with local officials means that business often continues as usual for many companies.
“This is really a test case,” said Chik Rini, a World Wildlife Fund campaigner, noting that while it’s not uncommon for timber, pulp, paper and palm oil companies to raze trees in protected areas, few developments occur in areas that seem so obviously off limits.
“If they get away with it here, well, then no forests are safe.”
Ibduh, the village chief, sits on the floor of a house rolling a cigarette as he and other men try to understand why after years of stalling Irwandi agreed on Aug. 25 to give PT Kallista Alam a permit to convert 4,000 acres of peat swamp forest in the heart of the renowned Leuser Ecosytem.
In addition to being home to almost every large animal found in Disney’s adaptation of “The Jungle Book,” it’s teeming with thousands of plant and insect species, many yet to be identified.
Irwandi says there’s nothing amiss with the concession. “I know what I have to do for the people of Aceh,” the 51-year-old says, alleging that political opponents in coming provincial elections are trying to turn the tide against him.
But Ahmad Fauzi Mas’ud, spokesman for the Forestry Ministry, agrees with critics that things don’t sound right.
“We haven’t received the documents for this license yet,” he said by telephone as he boarded a plane in the capital Jakarta.
“But if it’s inside peatland, it can’t be converted.”
A copy of the map of the new concession, obtained by The Associated Press, has it sitting squarely on a parcel of peatland forest identified as off limits under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s moratorium enacted in May.
For environmentalists, it’s an all too familiar story.
Fifty years ago in Indonesia, more than three-quarters of the archipelagic nation of 240 million people was blanketed in tropical rain forest. But half those trees have since disappeared.
Aceh offered a uniquely clean slate when its separatist insurgency came to an end after the devastating 2004 tsunami. The decades-long conflict had kept illegal logging at bay.
Irwandi, well-educated with a laid-back style and quick wit, made protecting Aceh’s forests one of his first goals when he surprised the pundits and won the governorship in 2006.
He was a former rebel, but not the fighting kind. For years, he’d led the propaganda campaign for the insurgents who saw the government in Jakarta as self-serving and corrupt.
He was serving a nine-year sentence for treason when the tsunami hit, crashing down the walls of the prison.
“I didn’t escape from prison,” the rebel-turned-politician likes to say. “It escaped from me.”
Irwandi fled to Jakarta, then Malaysia and finally Finland where he ended up joining exiled leaders of the Free Aceh Movement in negotiating an end to fighting after the tsunami with both sides eager to end the suffering.
After his return and election win, Irwandi immediately banned logging in Aceh. To this day, he can often be seen pulling over on the side of the road when spotting a pile of recently felled trees. He also makes spot checks at old logging camps and saw mills.
Which is why his turnabout on the Tripa swamp forest home to the world’s densest population of critically endangered Sumatran orangutans has left Ibduh and other villagers so confused and angry.
Already excavators have started knocking down trees and churning up soil.
Drainage canals also have been built and villagers’ drinking wells are already noticeably drier as result, they say. Security forces are deployed by the palm oil company along the perimeter of the forest, guns raised when anyone tries to enter.
Ibduh and other older men recall happier times when they could still earn money collecting rattan, honey and herbs for traditional medicine. Not long ago, they say proudly, pristine swamps and the Tripa river were teeming with catfish so large that many of them were able to earn enough at the local market to go to Mecca for the hajj pilgrimage.
Even now, gliding in a small wooden boat down the broad river that slices through the spectacular Tripa forests, saltwater crocodiles can be seen slipping silently from view. A rhinoceros hornbill lifts off with a gentle helicoptorish whoosh.
And as skies darken, troops of monkeys clamor in the branches above to settle in for the night.
“But for how long?” asks Safari, 32, one of the men. “When that forest is cleared, these animals will all be gone, every last one of them.”
Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta contributed to this report.
Further background information on Tripa can be found at:
Tripa on Youtube
Background briefing documents by legal coalition
http://photos.mongabay.com/11/Tripa-Truths.pdf
Coverage in REDD Monitor
http://www.redd-monitor.org/2011/11/24/irwandi-yusuf-indonesias-green-governor-accused-of-issuing-illegal-palm-oil-concession/
Coverage in UK
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/rebel-hero-who-has-betrayed-the-last-of-acehs-orangutans-6297297.html
Various other media articles from around the world in relation the illegal concession:
http://climate.aib.org.uk/tag/pt_permit
For further information please contact:
Muhammad Teguh Surya
Head International Liaison and Climate Justice Department
WALHI/ Friends of The Earth Indonesia
Jl. Tegal Parang Utara No. 14
Jakarta 12790
Telephone : +622179193363
mailto : [email protected]
Cellphone : +628118204362
website : www.walhi.or.id
UPDATE: WALHI Aceh submits their Summation of the Tripa Peat Swamp Case
Banda Aceh INDONESIA – Today, Wednesday 21st March 2012 the latest hearing in the case brought by WALHI Aceh contesting the permit to open land in the Tripa peat swamps forests issued by the Governor of Aceh to PT Kallista Alam, involved the submission of summaries of the case by the contestants. WALHI Aceh in its summation stated that there had been environmental destruction, a loss of livelihoods for local people, and the loss of habitat for endangered protected species.
WALHI Aceh were represented by the lawyers Kamaruddin SH and Syarifuddin SH at the hearing which began at 11.30 am at the National Administrative Court (PTUN). The hearing was brief as it only involved the submissions of the written submissions of the contesting parties.
Kamaruddin SH stated that their detailed 18-page summation included the testimonies of witnesses who had testified at previous hearings, both those for the Plaintiff and those for the Defendants.
The witnesses that testified opposing the permit, included local people whose livelihoods depend on the Tripa peat swamp forests, and who have suffered hardships as a consequence of the destruction of the forests for conversion to oil palm.
Meanwhile, the witnesses that testified on behalf of the defendants included an official of the Aceh provincial government based in Banda Aceh, and people with links to one of the defendants, PT Kallista Alam, including one of its contractors.
WALHI Aceh also stressed in its summation that the subject of the legal action, namely the Permit issued by the Aceh Governor to PT Kallista Alam, was a product of public administration, and thus should be tried in the National Administrative Court.
The Plaintiff (WALHI Aceh) are convinced that they have adequately proven the points of their case, namely that the Permit issued by an Administrative Official of the Government (i.e. The Governor of Aceh) is in contravention of several current laws and regulations, as well as breaking the principles of good governance and the public good.
Furthermore, even the location stated in the Governor’s Permit No. 525/BP2T/5322/2011 proved incorrect. It was issued to PT Kallista Alam on 25th August 2011, for the establishment of an Oil Palm Plantation of 1,605 ha, in Pulo Kruet Village, in the sub-District of Darul Makmur, Nagan Raya District, Aceh Province, whereas the location of the area in question does not even fall within the legal boundaries of the village.
On the contrary the whole of the area DOES fall within the Aceh region of the Leuser Ecosystem, specifically in the Tripa Peat Swamp Forests, which has been designated since 2008 as a National Strategic Area with a function of Environmental Protection, in the National Spatial Plan established by Government Regulation PP No.26 Tahun 2008.
Assuming the judges have finished their deliberations, the next and final hearing will be held at the same hour on Tuesday, the 3rd of April, 2012 at which time the ruling of the judges will be read out.
Interestingly, the Head Judge, Darmawi SH before the beginning of the hearing, took the opportunity to urge the Plaintiff and the Defendants to reach an amicable agreement. He said “if (sic the decision) is made in the courtroom, one party will definitely not agree with the decision”. Nevertheless, both parties showed no signs of backing down, and submitted their full summations to the court.
Meanwhile the hearing was enriched by a banner protesting the environmental destruction, set up by demonstrators from the Student’s and People’s Forum to Save the Tripa Peat Swamps of Nagan Raya. In their protest, the Forum, headed by Faisal asked the judges to uphold the laws against those committing environmental crimes. The demonstrators promised to return in much greater numbers for the reading of the judges ruling at the final hearing .
