Legal Frameworks Addressing the Environmental Consequences of Industrial Expansion

Abstract

This paper analyses the effectiveness of its own legal frameworks, which Indonesia has in place to regulate negative environmental effects from industrial expansion. Rapid industrial expansion, particularly in urbanized areas like Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung has led to severe environmental loss; air pollutions across these three major cities reach unhealthy levels everyday, while thousands hectares of critical water catchment areas have been degraded or lost due to conversion to plantations and agriculture. The research use juridical-normative method by examining primary legal materials (laws and judicial decisions) and secondary literary works. The examination uncovers noteworthy authorization deficiencies, where the current laws (prominently Law Number 32 of 2009 concerning Environmental Protection and Management) don't focus with consent issues because of helpless requirement of the law itself, alongside weak sanctions for infringement. The study also pointed out gaps in the implementation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) indicating that industries manage to escape regulatory scrutiny. It also highlights the trade-off between economic interests and environment protection, manifesting in a lack of requisite checks and balances by laws that compound environmental injustice. The paper, therefore, concludes that it is necessary to carry out all-round legal reforms in industry to improve control and penalties for non-compliance and encourage good behavior. The research feeds into discussions of how to square industrial growth with environmental sustainability and provides policy recommendations to supporting more sustainable industrial development in Indonesia.