The impact is most severe where the Earth’s carrying capacity has been systematically eroded. This pattern is starkly visible in Aceh and other parts of Sumatra. Between 1990 and 2024, these regions suffered extensive forest loss driven by land conversion: 690,777 hectares for oil palm, 69,733 ha for industrial timber and thousands more for mining and urban expansion (Kompas, 2025).

The human cost is devastating. According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), ecological disasters in these regions have claimed 1,059 lives, left 192 missing and injured over 7,600 people as of Wednesday.

These tragedies expose the rot at the core of the national economic policy: a growth-centric obsession that ignores ecological limits. Current policies overlook the irreplaceability of critical ecosystems and the rights of vulnerable communities to steward their environments.

This approach reflects a development model based on the fallacy that growth can proceed without ecological constraints, a concept known as "weak sustainability". This mindset is embodied in the controversial Law No. 6/2023 on job creation and its implementing regulations.

Many of today’s disasters could have been prevented had we applied the approach of strong sustainability, which holds that critical natural capital (CNC), or essential ecosystems, cannot be substituted by man-made wealth.

The 1945 Constitution supports this. In 2010, the Constitutional Court interpreted Article 33(3) to mean that state control over natural resources must serve the people's greatest prosperity as assessed by four criteria: (1) actual public benefits; (2) equitable distribution; (3) meaningful public participation; and (4) respect for intergenerational and customary rights.