Consequences of Decentralization: Environmental Impact Assessment and Water Pollution Control in Indonesia

Abstract

After having been one of the most centralized states in the world for more than thirty years, in 2001 Indonesia introduced a sweeping program of decentralization with important consequences for the management of the industrial sector. This article explores whether the decentralization process has led to substantial changes in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and enforcement of water pollution law. Its main findings are that the general division of authority in both fields has become less fragmented and that differences between districts have increased, but, in practice, not so much has changed as one would have expected. For EIA, “horizontal” disputes between sectoral agencies have been supplanted by “vertical” disputes between different levels of government. Monitoring and sanctioning of industrial water pollution have mainly continued within the scheme of the provincial program started under Soeharto's centralized regime, with still few initiatives at the district level. If any, such initiatives are usually driven by public complaints. On the other hand, there are indications that in the longer run the institutional changes may have more significant effects on EIA and enforcement practice. For EIA, these seem to be negative; for enforcement of water pollution regulation this depends much on the situation within a district or a province.

Environmental accounting practices: A Regulatory and internal management perspective

“…EA is an external configuration which is incorporated in the annual report as Indonesian accounting regulation does not regulate specific standards. Bedner (2010) suggested that the authority is divided across various government levels to give a clear influence on the performance of environmental control; hence, the processes of standard setting, and monitoring and imposing sanctions to protect the environment are in the environmental regulator.…”

Reorienting Regulation: Pollution Enforcement in Industrializing Countries

“…Adriaan Bedner's article in this issue (2010) examines the relationship between large governmental change and regulatory law implementation and enforcement. Bedner's focus is on how Indonesian decentralization reforms, initiated in 1999, affected the implementation of legal requirements for environmental impact assessments and the enforcement of pollution law.…”

“…Regulatory reforms in Indonesia in the 1990s and 2000s involved a turn towards using alternative regulatory instruments as well as decentralization (cf. Bedner 2010). McCarthy and Zen show that the supposed gains in regulatory responsiveness associated with decentralization have been hobbled by jurisdictional coordination problems as well as resource and capacity constraints at the local level.…”

Judicial Reasoning and Review in the Indonesian Supreme Court

“…Some commentators claim that governance standards have worsened, but others point to improvements in health and education in some regions. See Pratikno (2005); Kristiansen & Santoso (2006); Ahmad et al (2005); Arnold (2009); Hill (2014); Lieberman & Marzoeki (2002); Barr (2006); Lewis & Pattinasarany (2009); Bedner (2010).…”