Overlapping Legal Mandates in Forest Destruction Prosecution: Task Force and Prosecutorial Authority under Indonesian Law

Indonesia’s forests continue to face serious threats from rampant deforestation carried out by both individuals and corporations. To curb this, Law No. 18 of 2013 on the Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction created the Institute for the Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction (IP2H), granting it authority to investigate and prosecute forest-related crimes through a designated task force. Yet, this mandate overlaps with the prosecutorial powers already held by the police and the Attorney General’s Office under the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) and Law No. 16 of 2004, giving rise to conflicts of authority. This research, which adopts a normative legal method using statute and conceptual approaches, examines the implications of this overlap. The study identifies two main problems: first, a conflict of norms between IP2H task forces and public prosecutors; and second, legal uncertainty in deciding whether prosecutions should follow KUHAP or the framework established in Law No. 18 of 2013. What makes this study distinctive is its focus on the prosecutorial dimension of environmental crime, a topic often overlooked in forest governance debates. The research contributes by offering a reformulation of legal norms that can provide clearer, more consistent, and more effective prosecution of forest destruction cases in Indonesia.