On the occasion of Ecological Justice Day, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) emphasized that the increasingly widespread ecological crisis in Indonesia is the result of the state’s failure to carry out the mandate for agrarian reform and natural resource management as stipulated in MPR Decree No. IX/MPR/2001.

Amid a target of 8 percent economic growth, various development policies continue to rely on the expansion of extractive industries, downstream processing, National Strategic Projects (PSN), food estates, infrastructure development, and the exploitation of coastal areas and small islands. These policies have deepened inequality in control over natural resources, expanded agrarian conflicts, and accelerated environmental degradation.

WALHI National Executive Director, Boy Jerry Even Sembiring stated that the increasing frequency of ecological disasters, the climate crisis, deforestation, coastal degradation, mangrove loss, and mounting pressure on small islands demonstrate that Indonesia’s environmental problems are not merely technical issues of natural resource management.

According to WALHI, these conditions reflect a governance crisis rooted in unequal control over land and natural resources, as well as the continued dominance of a development paradigm that places economic growth as the primary objective without adequately considering environmental carrying capacity and public safety.

“On this Ecological Justice Day, WALHI reminds us that the ecological crisis we are experiencing today did not emerge suddenly. This crisis is a consequence of a development model that places economic growth above public safety and environmental sustainability. Therefore, the state must return to implementing MPR Decree No. IX/MPR/2001 as a constitutional mandate to reorganize the control, utilization, and management of natural resources in a fair, democratic, and sustainable manner,” Boy said on the sidelines of a rally at the main entrance of the Indonesian Parliament (DPR RI) in Jakarta on Monday, September 21, 2026.

WALHI considers that various legislative agendas and policies currently being pursued by the government and the DPR RI are still not fully aligned with the mandate of MPR Decree No. IX/MPR/2001.

“The implementation of the Job Creation Law, along with its various implementing regulations, is considered to have expanded investment facilitation while weakening environmental protections and opportunities for public participation. In practice, these policies have made it increasingly easy for corporations to gain control over land and resources and have increased the risk of dispossession of communities’ territories and livelihoods in various regions,” Boy stressed.