Irwandi Yusuf - Environmental Issues

Environmental Issues

One of Governor Irwandi's declared priorities was the protection of Aceh’s magnificent rainforest. "This is my obsession, since a long time ago - that Aceh is Aceh, and the forests of Aceh need to be kept well." His first step as a green governor was been to embrace the establishment of carbon trading in Aceh using the REDD mechanism, (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in order to reinvigorate the faltering economy and prevent further destruction of Aceh's rainforests.

Irwandi declared a moratorium on all logging in Aceh in March 2007, and personally drove out to villages to conduct spot inspections of former logging camps, encouraging the locals to take up sustainable new professions.

However, in 2011, Irwandi's apparent pro-environmental efforts were abruptly halted and reversed. He allegedly surprised supporters when information was uncovered that, on 25 August 2011, he had quietly granted a concession to palm oil supplier PT. Kallista Alam which authorised the destruction of a peat swamp forest that is one of the last refuges of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan. Some of the indigenous peoples took the about-face from the so-called 'Green Governor' personally, calling it a betrayal of their homeland and of his previous environmental credentials. On a legal level, though, many environmental organizations argued that Irwandi's decision breached a presidential moratorium – part of an international deal to save Indonesia's forests – as well as legislation protecting a conservation area where the Tripa swamp is located. Litigation was filed by environmental groups known as WAHLI, challenging the legality of this concession and contending it was granted in an area of protected forest and further violated a moratorium on peatlands conversion.

On March 27, 2012, on the eve of the WAHLI case being heard in court, over seventy illegally-set fires mysteriously broke-out in this protected Tripa swamp area, including fires set in the oil palm concession granted by Irwandi to PT. Kallista Alam. Many involved with the WAHLI litigation believed the fires were set in direct defiance of the pending litigation, in effect ignoring any eventual ruling on the alleged legality of Irwandi's granted concession. Mainstream media outlets and environmental organizations report that these fires could lead to the imminent and immediate extinction of the animal inhabitants of the Tripa swamp, including over 200 orangutans.

On April 3, 2012, the Council of Judges of the Banda Aceh National Administrative Court dismissed the WALHI case on jurisdictional grounds. WALHI was expected to appeal. The court acknowledged that the permit that Irwandi approved allowing PT Kallista Allam to convert the Tripa peat swamp into palm oil plantations was indeed located inside the protected Leuser Ecosystem and thus in violation of current Indonesian law. Some legal observers considered the lack of a decision by the court as a case of inappropriate behaviour because it refused to reach a ruling even though the case had been running for nearly five months.

Irwandi had spoken out amid the considerable attention that emerged in the wake of the Tripa peat swamp fires and the WALHI litigation. In reports on April 5, 2012, Irwandi claimed that the land grant, while legal, was 'immoral' yet intended by him to bring world attention to global inability to tackle global climate change, in effect destroying the Tripa forests in order to save them. Irwandi was quoted as saying, ”That concession, 1,600 hectares, was like a pinch to the international community. Maybe I will make a threat to lift the moratorium to make them look at Aceh." He also denied that any orangutans had died in the fires despite evidence to the contrary.

Later, after Irwandi had left office, the apparent over-exploitation of the Tripa forest area continued to attract comment. In July 2012 it was reported that officials from the national Environment Ministry who visited the Tripa area said that there were 'strong indications' that deliberate burning had been taking place in the region to convert the area to an oil palm plantation,

On August 30, 2012, judges of the Higher Administrative Court in Medan granted the WAHLI appeal, casting further doubt on Yusuf's one-time claims to be the "Green Governor." The ruling contained among other things: 1) the granting of the WALHI appeal; 2)cancellation of the contested Tripa license issued by the Governor of Aceh (then Yusuf) on August 25, 2011; 3) an order to the current Governor of Aceh to withdraw the contested State Administrative Decision issued by Yusuf on the plantation permit to PT. Kalista Alam issued on August 25, 2011; 4) and an order that the Defendants jointly cover the cost of both court process.