The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has issued a fatwa that forbids deforestation and forest burning. The fatwa is a provision to prevent a climate crisis in Indonesia. This rule is contained in Fatwa Number 86 of 2023 concerning the Law of Global Climate Change Control. The fatwa was launched together with MUI’s Environmental and Natural Resources Cultivation Institution, Manka, ECONUSA, Ummah For Earth and the MUI Fatwa Commission.
Hayu Prabowo, head of the MUI’s Environmental and Natural Resources Cultivation Institution, said that the MUI forbids all forms of actions that cause damage to nature such as deforestation. In addition, burning forests and land that has an impact on the climate crisis is also forbidden.
“This fatwa also requires mitigation and adaptation efforts to climate change, reducing carbon footprints that are not basic needs, and making efforts for an equitable energy transition,” said Hayu, in a press statement quoted by Tangkasi.id, Monday (26/2).
Meanwhile, on the same occasion at the Buya Hamka Hall, MUI Office, Central Jakarta, Director of the Manka Association, Juliarta Bramansa Ottay, stated that climate change is a large and complex issue, so it requires collaboration from various parties so that awareness and knowledge of climate change issues are increasing in the community.
Juliarta claims that increasing public awareness and knowledge will make the mitigation efforts that have been running more impactful.
“Our hope is that the legal fatwa on Global Climate Change Control, supported by the modalities of religious institutions in the fields of education and da’wah, can reach and garner the support of a wide audience to mainstream the issue of climate change in the lives of Indonesian people,” he concluded.
MUI’s move to issue a fatwa prohibiting deforestation and forest burning has been appreciated by a number of parties, although there are questions about the extent to which it will have an impact on company compliance in their business. This is because the regulation is not binding for palm oil companies, mining companies or companies holding Industrial Plantation Forest (HTI) licenses. In the case of forest fires, for example, MUI has issued Fatwa No. 30 of 2016 regarding the prohibition for companies to burn forests and land. However, in the field cases of forest and land fires Karhutla increased sharply.
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) noted that the area of forest and land fires (karhutla) in Indonesia was 358,867 hectares (ha) in 2021. This number increased by 20,85% compared to 2020, which was 296.942 ha. This condition proves that the MUI Fatwa does not have a major influence in reducing fires.
Law lecturer from Jentera School of Law (STH) Indonesia, Raynaldo G. Sembiring said that the high number of fires in 2021 compared to 2020 was partly influenced by the El Nino factor. However, he did not deny that there were also corporate factors. He considered the ineffectiveness of MUI’s fatwa because there was no one strong warning from MUI regarding companies that had been guilty. Therefore, he encouraged MUI to provide a deterrent effect for corporate companies that burn forests and land.
In MUI fatwa 86 of 2023, for example, their recommendation to entrepreneurs is only neutral, such as complying with the provisions of Amdal licensing, adopting sustainable business. They should have made a fatwa for companies or entrepreneurs who have been found guilty based on court decisions to be responsible. If they do not fulfill the verdict, then MUI can issue a Fatwa so that people do not buy products from companies that commit forest and land fires and deforestation crimes.
“Maybe it doesn’t matter because of that (not in the fatwa). So companies can play with the law. If you talk about not affecting it because there, first, it does not appear in the fatwa, secondly, the reality is very real today, where the law has been played by corporations,” Raynaldo said when contacted by Tangkasi.id, Monday night (26/2/2024).
Raynaldo, who is the Executive Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) -a research and advocacy institution in the field of environmental law and policy- added that the government has issued many legal rules to ensnare perpetrators of deforestation and forest and land burning, ranging from laws, government regulations, presidential instructions to other derivative regulations. In the case of deforestation, there is Law No. 18 of 2013 on the Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction. Despite these regulations, deforestation cases remain high.
In 2023, for example, the conversion of Indonesia’s primary forests to fast-growing, intensively managed monoculture wood pulp plantations (mainly Acacia sp. or Eucalyptus sp.) increased again compared to the previous year. The Nusantara Atlas study, which used Sentinel-2 and Planet/NICFI satellite imagery, revealed that 28,000 hectares of primary forest were converted to wood pulp plantations in 2023. This means deforestation increased by 15% compared to 2022.
In 2023, the plantation area in Kalimantan increased by 74,000 hectares, a 12% growth from 2022. This expansion led to the conversion of 27,000 hectares of primary forest, a 13% increase from the previous year, representing 95% of Indonesia’s deforestation caused by wood pulp production. Peatland conversion in Kalimantan also increased, resulting in 15.585 ha being cut down. This means a 79% increase since 2022 (8.727 ha logged).
Then in the case of forest and land fires, there is Law No. 41/1999 on Forestry, Law 32/2009 on Environmental Protection and Management (PPLH) and Law 39/2014 on Plantations. Although the regulations are quite complete, law enforcement still has serious problems. In the 2015 forest and land fire case in Riau, there were 15 companies that had been named as suspects, but in the course of the case, the Riau Police even issued a letter of termination of investigation (SP3). This action is counterproductive in providing a deterrent effect to corporate actors who commit arson. The police, he continued, only dared to ensnare individual perpetrators even in the company’s concession area. Therefore, he asked for the police’s commitment not to terminate cases of corporate suspects in the future.
Therefore, Raynaldo continued, the MUI Fatwa cannot stand alone. It needs collaboration between MUI and the relevant government. If the rule of law is difficult to implement, then he encourages MUI to create social sanctions in the form of a list of companies that commit environmental crimes and encourage people not to buy products from these companies. “It needs to be given a punishment,” he said. (*)