Information Availability and NGO Advocacy: Indonesian Environmental NGOs and Anti-Mining Campaigns

Publication Date

Summer 2010

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Transnational and domestic mining companies in Indonesia are said to be damaging the environment because of their mining activities. In order to achieve environmental justice, Indonesian environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been actively fighting against these mining companies. However, although both transnational corporations and domestic companies are suspected to be causing environmental degradation, Indonesian NGOs tend to launch large-scale advocacy campaigns only against the former. This paper argues that the one-sidedness of their advocacy efforts shows that these NGOs have a bounded rationality due to limited information. The argument here is that NGOs tend to target their campaigns against companies about which they have more information, rather than against those about which they have less. Especially, foreign or international NGOs’ advocacy campaigns are likely to influence Indonesian NGOs’ choice of targets, and companies that are accused by foreign NGOs are likely to be accused by Indonesian NGOs as well.

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