Criminal Law Policy in Combating Land Use Changes that Cause Environmental Problems

The rapidly increasing population growth is not accompanied by an adequate amount of land, causing land that should not be designated for settlements to become settlements which in turn causes various environmental problems. The purpose of this study is to analyze criminal law policies in tackling people's behavior towards land conversion which causes environmental problems such as flooding, landslides, garbage and declining quality of clean water. The research method used in this research is normative legal research, the data source used is secondary data obtained through literature study which is then analyzed qualitatively. Based on the results of the study, the social conflict that occurred in Ambon in 1999 led to the division of settlements based on ethnicity, religion, race and inter-group as well as the increasing number of residents while the increasingly narrow land area became a factor causing people to open settlements in areas/land that were not for its purpose. Residential settlements are built in disaster-prone areas such as on the banks of rivers or on the slopes of mountains, residents cut down trees to clear land even though it is a water catchment area and densely populated settlements that are not in accordance with spatial management cause various environmental problems such as floods, landslides , accumulation of garbage and decreased quality of clean water. There is a need for a Criminal Law Policy in overcoming land use changes that can cause complex environmental problems.