Ministry of Environment and Forestry v. PT Waringin Agro Jaya

On July 7, 2016, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (the MoEF) sued a company of palm oil plantation, namely PT Waringin Agro Jaya, for fires covering an area of 1,626 hectares. The MoEF used two liability rules in this lawsuit: strict liability and the unlawful act rule (Perbuatan Melawan Hukum). For the unlawful act rule, the plaintiff argued that the defendant had intentionally set up fires to clear the land for the sake of efficiency. For the strict liability rule, the plaintiff argued that the defendant’s activities posed significant threats to environment—considering the crop field are within the peatlands area. Therefore, the defendant would be liable for compensation of damages caused by wildfires within concessions area. The MoEF ask the court to order the defendant to pay compensation of IDR 988 million for the released of 10,979 tC and IDR 345.8 million for the losses of carbon sinks which equals to 3,843 tC. On February 7, 2017, the district court of South Jakarta ruled in favor of the plaintiff and held the defendant strictly liable for compensation of IDR 173.4 billion. On November 2, 2017, the Jakarta Court of Appeal upheld the lower court rulings. On August 10th, 2018, the Supreme Court also upheld the district court rulings.