Ministry of Environment and Forestry v. PT National Sago Prima

On February 5, 2016, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (the MoEF) sued a sago plantation company, namely PT National Sago Prima, for fires occurring inside its controlled area. The MoEF claimed that the defendant infringed upon various obligations under Indonesian environmental regulation. Firstly, the MoEF argued that the defendant did not have adequate preventive and control system as required in Indonesian forest protection regulation. Secondly, the MoEF found that PT National Sago Prima were running the business without the mandatory Environmental Impact Analysis (Analisis Mengenai Dampak Lingkungan). Hence, the MoEF argued that the defendant had been negligent and therefore is liable for compensation for the damages. The MoEF asked the court to order the defendant to pay IDR 2,430,000,000 for the release of 27.000 tC and IDR 850,500,000 for the losses of carbon sinks. On August 11, 2016, the District Court of South Jakarta ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and claimed that the defendant is liable to damages caused by wildfires. On December 4th, 2017, the Jakarta Court of Appeal overruled the lower court rulings and accepted the appeal from the defendant. On December 17, 2018, the Indonesian Supreme Court overruled the appeal court rulings and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. The Supreme Court decided that the defendant was liable to compensation of IDR 319,168,422,500.