REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Minister of Environment and Forestry (LHK), Siti Nurbaya, signed a collective agreement (SKB) on Integrated Law Enforcement for Criminal Act of Forest/Land Fire. The agreement was also signed by Chief of the Indonesian National Police (Kapolri), Listyo Sigit, and Attorney General ST Burhanuddin. The signing that took place in Indonesian National Police headquarter on Thursday (6/5) was also attended by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs of Indonesia, Mahfud MD.
Mahfud said, based on Supreme Court verdict, the integrated law enforcement for forest fire must involve multiple parties.
“Forest fire doesn’t only involve one area of law, such as police, but also involve administrative law. It could be also related to civil law,” Coordinating Minister Mahfud said on his speech.
Meanwhile, Minister Siti said that the collective agreement is important as an integrated commitment and as a responsive measure, as well as a proactive act to enforce environment law based on Article 95 clause (1) Laws No 32/2009 on Protection and Management of Environment and Supreme Court Verdict No 18/PUU-XII/2014.
“It is also a form of government’s presence in an effort to conserve environment and give welfare to people. The effort is supported by professional and integrated measures,” Minister Siti said.
Minister Siti furtherly said that eventhough every instances have its own authority; it doesn’t mean that the law enforcement moves individually. The law enforcement should be done together to support each other. It is an effective way to give deterrent effect for environmental and forestry criminal, especially forest fire.
Ever since facing hard days of forest fire in 2015, she said, every related party learned some knowledges that then included in Presidential Instruction No 3/2020 on Mitigation of Forest and Ground Fire by President Jokowi. Minister Siti thanked every party for their cooperation.
“I thank everyone for every effort, especially for Indonesian National Police, Indonesian National Armed Forces, Attorney General’s Office, National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), local governments, and every related ministry as well as citizens,” she said.
The synergy of forest fire mitigation in 2020, during hard times due to pandemic Covid-19, is resulted in the decreasing of forest fire area by 82 percent and the amount of hotspot up to 91 percent. Minister Siti said, the measures were focused on prevention and mitigation by conducting early anticipation of hotspot and fire spot through satellite monitoring and join patrol, as well as TMC weather modification, and paralegal development.
Minister Siti mentioned that the strategy of forest fire mitigation did not stop on prevention. Forest fire mitigation through law enforcement is a key factor, she explained.
Meanwhile, Attorney General ST Burhanuddin said his office is fully supported the SKB, which is an optimum form of forest fire mitigation efforts. He said that after the issuance of Presidential Instructions No 3/2020 on Forest and Ground Fire Mitigation, Attorney General’s Office has instructed its subordinates to strengthen coordination with law enforcers and optimize law enforcement measures to mitigate forest fire.
Attorney General also asked the subordinates to boost socialization of law implementation on forest fire criminal act handling through maximum charge plan by public prosecutor. Then, Attorney General also asked the subordinates to conduct join training for law enforcers to enhance their capacity and synergy on forest fire criminal act handling.
Chief of the Indonesian National Police (Kapolri), Listyo Sigit, reminded that on National Coordination Meeting of Forest Fire Mitigation 2021, the President gave six instructions that should be done by everyone to prevent forest fire on becoming national disaster.
Police are ready to help every forest fire mitigation effort, including integrated law enforcement that firm and without compromise. “Police are cooperating to enforce integrated law on forest fire case give deterrent effect to the criminals,” he said.
This event was also attended by Director General of Law Enforcement of KLHK, Director of Forest Mitigation and Security of KLHK, Director of Criminal Law of KLHK, Director of Reskrimsus Polda, Assistant of General Criminal of High Attorney’s Office, Representative of BNPB, and Representative of Ministry of Agriculture.