- Indonesia’s recently revised conservation law retains a heavy focus on terrestrial protection and largely ignores marine and fisheries issues, experts say.
- Despite improvements such as clearer authority for managing marine and coastal conservation areas, critics argue the law still falls short in addressing urgent marine conservation needs.
- The law strengthens penalties for illegal activities and outlines responsibilities for protecting fish species and marine life, but many fear the minimal inclusion of maritime conservation will worsen illegal fishing and environmental degradation.
- Indigenous groups have also slammed the new law, citing its failure to include Indigenous participation and protect their rights over customary lands and forests.
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s recently updated conservation law continues to prioritize terrestrial protection, raising concerns over much-needed improvements to the management of the country’s rich marine ecosystems and resources.
Parliament passed revisions to the 1990 conservation law this past July, seven years since it was submitted for legislation. The update introduces 24 provisions that modify or expand provisions in the 1990 version, while also repealing some provisions from the 2019 law on water resources.
And while the 2024 conservation law now adopts provisions on protection of coastal areas and small islands, it continues to focus for the most part on forestry and land-based conservation, said Arisetiarso Soemodinoto, an adviser at the NGO Fisheries Resource Center of Indonesia.
“Two-thirds of Indonesia’s territory is waters, the rest is land,” Arisetiarso told Mongabay. The few mentions in the law of marine, coastal areas, small islands and fisheries thus comes across as the bare minimum, he added.
Indonesia is home to some of the most diverse marine life on the planet, especially in its eastern region that falls within the Pacific Coral Triangle, an area renowned for its richness of corals and reef fish. The country’s maritime sector also holds untapped potential as a vast carbon sink.
“To be frank, I’m disappointed with the new law because, in my opinion, it’s still biased toward land,” Arisetiarso said.
Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Indonesia’s environment minister, hailed the revised legislation before its passage as “important in maintaining the relevance of conservation principles, of which the implementation is strengthened by current conditions.”
She said in a statement published in June that the new conservation law will regulate conservation activities in coastal areas and small islands to strengthen the management of natural resources in those regions.
She also said it introduces a new framework for managing important ecosystems outside protected areas and state forests, ensuring the application of conservation principles beyond nature reserves and wildlife conservation areas, and enhances regulations on prohibitions, sanctions and penalties related to wildlife crimes.
But observers say the new law lacks progress on efforts to support maritime conservation and sustainable fisheries. Environmental and Indigenous rights activists have also slammed the lack of adequate public consultation before it was passed.
Nirwan Dessibali, executive director of the Marine Conservation Foundation (YKL), which was invited to weigh in on the bill in 2023, said the new law does a poor job of laying the foundation for conservation of marine environments.
“The final version barely includes coastal areas and small islands,” he said. “Even then, it doesn’t properly address the current challenges faced by marine conservation areas, coastal zones and small islands.”
According to both Nirwan and Setiarso, a key implication of this shortcoming is that it will perpetuate the ongoing imbalance between conservation budgeting and donations for landscapes versus seascapes.
“Much of the available conservation funds go to land-based efforts, meanwhile the marine area that requires protection actually needs much more funds than the land area,” Arisetiarso said.
Indonesia’s 411 marine protected areas cover a combined surface area of 284,100 square kilometers (109,700 square miles), an area larger than the U.K. Yet this represents less than 9% of Indonesia’s total maritime area; the country is targeting to expand that coverage to 10% by 2030 and then 30% by 2045 as part of its contribution to the global “30 by 30” conservation goal, which aims to protect 30% of the world’s land and seas by 2030.
In all, Indonesia has created an expansive network of conservation areas covering 325,000 km2 (125,500 mi2) of land and water, but the government struggles to adequately fund most of these areas. That has left them largely without enough staff, transportation support or other infrastructure to facilitate daily operations, according to a 2023 study.
Nirwan said the dearth of provisions on marine conservation and sustainable fisheries in the new law could exacerbate the long-running problems of destructive and illegal fishing, coastal land reclamation, and at-sea sand mining.
“Our hope was for the new conservation law to be the legal foundation for integrating both land and marine conservation areas because they’re connected,” he said.
The Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) also laid out in a statement the major flaws in the new conservation law, such as the lack of Indigenous participation, a disregard for Indigenous rights to forests for conservation, and the risk of Indigenous peoples being displaced for the expansion of protected areas. The group also said the law makes it more difficult for communities to regain control over their customary forests, creates a loophole for exploitation by corporations that could further marginalize Indigenous peoples, and potentially allow the commercialization of forests for carbon credits.
“AMAN expresses its strong opposition to the ratification and enactment of this law and urges the government and [parliament] to ratify the Indigenous Peoples Bill into law in accordance with the aspirations of the Indigenous Peoples,” the group said.
Other experts say the new law makes welcome progress in pushing for improved conservation management of marine ecosystems, coastal zones and small islands, including by clarifying authority and jurisdiction over these areas.
“This is important given the growing pressure on marine ecosystems from human activities, such as overfishing, pollution and climate change,” Zuzy Anna, a marine science professor at Padjajaran University in the city of Bandung, told Mongabay.
She said having a clearer distribution of authority between the forestry and fisheries ministries might reduce the risk of overlap and conflict between the various government agencies involved in the management of conservation areas, which was a recurring issue under the previous law.
The Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries said the new law gives it full authority for managing and designating marine conservation areas. This, it added, strengthens its role in implementing the “Blue Economy Priority Program” and expanding and effectively managing conservation areas. The law further establishes the ministry’s responsibilities for the conservation of fish species and marine life.
And even though the new law doesn’t explicitly mention fish stock management or fishers, Zuzy said it indirectly addresses key aspects of sustainable fisheries and fishing communities’ welfare. She said the law gives stricter legal sanctions against illegal fishing and overfishing, while strengthening safeguards for fishers’ rights from external threats like foreign fishing vessels or habitat destruction.
It also introduces much stronger penalties for conservation crimes. Under the previous legislation, anyone who “trades, keeps, distributes or kills” a protected species has committed a crime, punishable with imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to 100 million rupiah ($6,500). The 2024 law prescribes a range of penalties, making distinctions between individuals and corporations, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and up to 50 billion rupiah ($3.2 million) in fines. In addition, the revised law prescribes sanctions for online trafficking of protected wildlife.
Zuzy noted, however, that law enforcement in Indonesia, particularly in environmental and conservation contexts, faces significant challenges despite these upgraded sanctions. Offenders are rarely prosecuted; on the few occasions they are, they typically receive token sentences far below the maximum, she said.
“Issues such as corruption … limited resources, and inadequate law enforcement capacity hinder the effectiveness of regulations,” Zuzy said. “Weak infrastructure for monitoring further complicates enforcement, potentially allowing conservation violations to persist and undermining the law’s positive impact on natural resource preservation.”
Basten Gokkon is a senior staff writer for Indonesia at Mongabay. Find him on 𝕏 @bgokkon.
See more from the reporter:
Indonesia announces plan to protect 10% of its seas by 2030, and 30% by 2045
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