Jakarta—The Indonesia Working Group on Forest Finance (IWGFF) and Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI) launched the Guidebook for Submitting Information on Money Laundering Crimes in the Environment and Forestry Sector on Wednesday, December 4.
IWGFF stated in a written statement that the guidebook is designed to educate the public and civil investigators about tracing the flow of funds, assets, and criminal networks.
Green Financial Crime (GFC), including Corruption Crime (Tipikor) and Money Laundering Crime (TPPU), is a significant challenge to the sustainability of Indonesia’s environment and natural resources.
“Fighting GFC requires an extraordinary approach, including tracing the flow of funds, assets and networks of criminals. We hope this guide can be a tool for the community and law enforcement officials to use in effective law enforcement efforts,” said Willem Pattinasarany, Director of IWGFF.
These natural resource crimes have far-reaching impacts, harming the right to life, social and economic rights, and environmental sustainability for future generations. The cross-space and time characteristics of the GFC make the active participation of civil society, particularly civil society organisations (CSOs), a key element in efforts to prevent and eradicate this crime. Full support from the government, law enforcement officials, academics and business actors is needed for the success of this effort.
Crime or criminal offence in the environmental and natural resources sector or Green Financial Crime is an extraordinary crime with a multi-level network that needs to be handled with an extraordinary legal system, namely the anti-corruption and anti-money laundering systems. With these two systems, crime networks, perpetrators and assets can be revealed and confiscated by the state.
In 2014, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) launched the National Movement to Save Natural Resources as a commitment from both institutions to combat the GFC. By monitoring financial transactions, these two institutions use data, information and reports from civil society to uncover corruption and money laundering networks in the environmental sector. According to both organisations, civil society participation and support from government agencies is still not optimal.
IWGFF emphasises the importance of cross-sector collaboration, ranging from the government, law enforcement officials, and CSOs, to business actors. This joint step is expected to create a transparent and sustainable system that protects natural resources and ensures that people’s basic rights are fulfilled. (nsh)
