JAKARTA — Two of Indonesia’s most prominent environmental experts are facing a lawsuit that activists say is part of a wider trend of silencing scientists who testify against environmental violators.
Bambang Hero Saharjo and Basuki Wasis, both veteran forensics experts whose testimonies have helped convict major polluters, are being sued by PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri (KLM), a palm oil company they helped hold accountable for massive fires in Central Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo.
Their expert testimony and damage assessments have proved crucial in securing rulings against environmental offenders. By calculating the cost of ecological destruction, they help judges assign real value to environmental losses — evidence often used to prove corporate liability or even corruption.
Bambang has testified as an expert in more than 500 environmental destruction cases, and is currently assisting in more than 15 cases — from fires that spew toxic haze, to mining-caused floods and landslides.
The KLM case stems from 2018, when the Indonesian government sued the company for fires that burned 511 hectares (1,263 acres) of its concession in Central Kalimantan. Those fires contributed to the toxic haze crisis that routinely blankets parts of Indonesia and neighboring countries during the dry season, causing widespread respiratory illness, school closures and flight cancellations. Peatland fires in particular release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, making them a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions and regional air pollution.
A court found KLM liable for the fires and ordered it to pay 89 billion rupiah ($5.5 million) in fines and 210 billion rupiah ($12.9 million) in environmental restoration costs, based on an assessment done by Bambang and Basuki at the government’s request.
The company appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which reinforced the initial ruling.
Seven years on, KLM has filed a civil lawsuit against Bambang and Basuki. It alleges that the experts acted unlawfully by testifying in court — essentially saying they harmed the company by doing their jobs.
KLM is seeking 273.9 billion rupiah ($16.8 million) in material damages and 90.6 billion rupiah ($5.6 million) in non-material damages from Bambang and Basuki.
Legal experts point out that sworn expert witnesses, like Bambang and Basuki, are protected from civil lawsuits under Indonesian law, a principle central to the functioning of courts.
“We’re baffled [by the lawsuit and the demand],” Bambang said at a recent press conference in Jakarta. “What unlawful act did we commit? We were simply fulfilling our duty as sworn experts. Our testimony was based on facts and data. The judges were free to use it or not — and they did.”
Bambang and Basuki have attended three hearings in the lawsuit at a court in West Java province, most recently on July 15. The time and energy they’ve spent on this case could have been used for other cases, they said.
“Of course, this lawsuit is extremely disruptive because, in addition to this case, I’m also handling several others. It also causes concern, not just for me personally, but for my family as well,” Bambang said.
Basuki also said the court process has consumed his time as both an academic and an expert currently working on other environmental cases.
“If we keep getting sued like this, all our time will be spent dealing with lawsuits. Meanwhile, the environment will become increasingly neglected. In the end, it won’t just be Jakarta that suffers, but all of Indonesia, even the world — because the environment is the lifeblood of the planet, and we must protect it together,” he said at the same press conference.
Activists have denounced the lawsuit as a textbook example of a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP — a legal tactic used by companies and governments to intimidate or silence critics.
Textbook SLAPP
Both Bambang and Basuki have previously been sued by companies that have been punished by courts that relied on their expert testimonies. For Bambang, this is his fourth such lawsuit. He’s successfully fended off the three lawsuits, the first two of which were also brought by palm oil companies hit with record fines for forest fires.
“SLAPPs are designed to waste our time and energy that could be spent defending the environment,” said Adam Putra Firdaus, a researcher at the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL).
Such cases, activists warn, could create a chilling effect among academics and experts, discouraging them from testifying in court.
“If lawsuits like this are allowed to continue, they will undermine our judicial system. People will be afraid to testify if they risk legal threats,” said Edy Kurniawan, a lawyer with the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).
In addition to being a clear example of SLAPP, KLM’s lawsuit against Bambang and Basuki also constitutes judicial harassment, aimed at discrediting the valuable scientific contributions they’ve made over the years, said Yassar Aulia from advocacy group Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).
“For instance, thanks to their expertise presented in court, trillions of rupiah in state losses due to environmental corruption have been identified and recovered from ecological criminals,” he said.
The lawsuit is also seen as an attempt by KLM to evade responsibility and defy the court ruling.
In 2024, Mongabay visited KLM’s concession in Kapuas district, and found that burned peatlands that should have been restored after the fires had instead been cleared and cultivated again by the company.
There have also been repeated instances of burning on the concession since the 2018 fire, with fires detected in 2019 and 2023.
In 2023, the country’s largest environmental group, WALHI, filed a new complaint against the company with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for fires that burned around 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) that year.
“We urge the court to immediately enforce the legally binding verdict [against KLM],” said Okto Yugo Setiyo, the coordinator of environmental NGO Jikalahari. “Enforcement is crucial to deliver justice to the environment and the victims of smoke exposure in Central Kalimantan.”
Anti-SLAPP measures
Indonesia has measures in place to combat frivolous SLAPP attempts, including a 2009 law and a 2023 Supreme Court regulation that both protect environmental defenders. The 2009 law on environmental protection states that “Every person who fights for the right to a good and healthy environment cannot be prosecuted criminally or sued in a civil court.”
In September 2024, the environment ministry also introduced a long-awaited anti-SLAPP regulation. Taken together, these regulations should be enough for the court to dismiss outright the ongoing case against Bambang and Basuki, activists say.
They point out that if the lawsuit is allowed to continue, the court is obligated to issue a preliminary ruling declaring the case inadmissible as mandated by the 2023 Supreme Court regulation.
Yet despite the existence of various anti-SLAPP regulations, implementation remains poor, with SLAPP lawsuits often proceeding to trial. Auriga Nusantara, an environmental NGO, has recorded at least 133 SLAPP incidents against environmental defenders between 2014 and 2023 in Indonesia.
Polluters can still file SLAPP lawsuits partly because of poor execution of court rulings, as in the case of KLM, said Sekar Banjaran Aji, a forest campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia. Despite the company being found guilty in 2019, the court hasn’t still collected the fines from the company to execute the ruling. This has given KLM room to sue Bambang and Basuki, Sekar said.
“Weak law enforcement against environmental offenders — especially when it comes to enforcing rulings — has opened the door for companies to launch SLAPPs against those defending the environment,” she said.
Sekar called for stronger law enforcement and stronger action against SLAPP. As the climate crisis intensifies and corporate pushback grows stronger, she said protecting those who speak out is essential for holding polluters accountable.
“The forests that Bambang and Basuki are trying to protect are our last defense against the climate crisis,” she said. “We must begin to see resistance to SLAPPs as resistance against polluters. It’s time to fight back — because the climate crisis is already at our doorstep.”