Aerial photograph of land being cleared for a nickel mine in North Morowali. (Photo: Iqbal Lubis/Flickr)
Indonesia’s largest environmental group, Walhi, has filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, accusing 47 companies of environmental destruction and corruption.
The companies, which operate in industries like palm oil, mining and forestry, are accused of being responsible for 437 trillion rupiah ($26.5 billion) in state losses.
Based on field investigations and spatial analysis, Walhi says it has identified 18 forms of gratuities paid by the companies to officials in the 47 cases. In some of these cases, Walhi found that officials had approved the rescinding of forest status for certain areas by revising zoning plans, thereby allowing the companies to clear forests for their concessions.
In other cases, Walhi found officials had retroactively legalized illegal plantations within forest zones through an amnesty program, again giving companies legal cover to deforest without being prosecuted for their crimes.
