Environmental teams say authorities additionally holds accountability for granting companies proper to raze giant tracts of land.
Printed On 16 Jan 2026
Indonesia’s authorities has filed a number of lawsuits searching for greater than $200m in damages towards six companies, after lethal floods wreaked havoc throughout Sumatra, killing greater than 1,000 folks final 12 months, though environmentalists criticised the strikes as insufficient.
Environmentalists, consultants and the federal government pointed the finger at deforestation for its position in final 12 months’s catastrophe that washed torrents of mud and picket logs into villages throughout the northwestern a part of the island.
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The federal government is searching for 4.8 trillion rupiah ($283.8m) from six firms accused of unspecified harm to an space spanning greater than 2,500 hectares, the Ministry of Atmosphere stated on Thursday.
The sum represents each fines for harm and the proposed financial worth of restoration efforts.
The fits have been filed to courts on Thursday in Jakarta and North Sumatra’s Medan, the ministry added.
“We firmly uphold the precept of polluter pays,” Atmosphere Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq stated in an announcement.
He added that any company that “earnings by damaging the ecosystem have to be held absolutely accountable for restoring it”.
The Atmosphere Ministry declined to supply extra particulars when talking with the AFP information company on the alleged harm attributable to the defendants, listed within the assertion solely by their initials.
The Indonesia Enterprise Put up reported that the ministry can be conducting environmental audits on greater than 100 firms working within the provinces of North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh, quoting Nurofiq as saying that potential legal suspects can be recognized after the audits are accomplished.
Individually, a activity drive comprised of the army, police, Legal professional Basic’s Workplace, and ministries has recognized 12 firms suspected of contributing to flash floods and landslides in Sumatra, The Indonesia Enterprise Put up stated.
Environmental teams say the federal government additionally holds some accountability when granting firms the proper to raze giant tracts of land.
Greenpeace Indonesia’s forest campaigner Arie Rompas known as the lawsuits a “minimalist” transfer, including that authorities ought to comprehensively evaluate insurance policies accountable for the catastrophe.
“Moreover the affect of the local weather disaster, the flooding was additionally attributable to land degradation, together with deforestation, carried out by companies,” Arie instructed AFP.
“These firms have been granted permits by the federal government.”
Mining, plantations, and fires have precipitated the clearance of enormous tracts of lush Indonesian rainforest over current a long time.
Greater than 240,000 hectares of major forest have been misplaced in 2024, in line with evaluation by conservation start-up The TreeMap’s Nusantara Atlas mission.
Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni stated final month that the federal government will revoke 22 forestry permits throughout the nation, together with permits that embody greater than 100,000 hectares in Sumatra.
Antoni didn’t specify whether or not the choice was linked to the catastrophe, although he earlier stated that the floods present a possibility to “consider our insurance policies”.
The “pendulum between the economic system and ecology appears to have swung too far in the direction of the economic system and must be pulled again to the centre,” Antoni stated on the time.
