Description
This report focuses on the legal aspects of the EnviroSecurity Assessment case study of Kalimantan. In this area large and numerous forest fires cause a lot of damage to human health, the economy and the environment in various ways. Moreover, the livelihood of local (indigenous) communities, the Dayak, is severely disrupted by large scale logging and oil palm operations. These major environmental security issues at Kalimantan are assessed by discussing two topic areas of sustainable development law, i.e. environmental and human rights law. The paper presents what international obligations are currently binding on the Republic of Indonesia, and what additional international legal instruments it could adopt, in order to guarantee sustainable development of its natural resources for different stakeholders.
The paper concludes that especially international environmental law can provide solutions for combating the main environmental security issues at Kalimantan. Based on the principle of preventive action and the polluter-pays principle, for example, the Indonesian government is obliged under international (environmental) law to stop the forest fires. The Convention on Biological Diversity, the Kyoto Protocol, and the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution are treaties in which Indonesia has committed itself to preventing, reducing and controlling transboundary environmental harm.
Information
- Author(s)
- Van Harmelen, Mirjam, Matthijs S. van Leeuwen and Tanja de Vette
- Publisher
- Institute for Environmental Security
- Place published
- The Hague
- Date / journal vol no.
- October 2005
- Pages
- 122
