Business Corruption

Global Integrity 2008 reports that company inspections by government officials to ensure public environmental standards are not always carried out in a uniform and even-handed manner. According to a 2010 news article by The Jakarta Post, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK, in Indonesian) conducted a study in 2010, which found indications that many plantation companies offered bribes to local administration officials in order to carry out illegal practices.

Political Corruption

Corruption in the forestry sector in Indonesia is rampant. A typical example is government officials accepting bribes from businesses in exchange for issuing logging licences. According to a 2010 news article by The Jakarta Post, the former head of Riau Forestry Agency was sentenced to five years in prison for accepting USD 168,000 in bribes for issuing forest conversion permits to five companies. According to the same source, misuse of forest permits by officials is the most common form of corruption in the forestry sector.

According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2009, Adelin Lis, a successful timber industrialist, was acquitted of corruption and illegal logging charges in November 2007 despite a strong government case against him, including nearly forty eyewitnesses. This affair shed light on the links between environmental destruction, judicial corruption and political interference. This case elucidates how environmental laws are openly flouted by the private sector, often in collusion with local and provincial government officials.