Indonesian NGOs call for moratorium on natural resource exploitation

Antara 19 Feb 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Five non-governmental organizations have called on the government to temporarily stop issuing licenses for the exploitation of natural resources due to the destruction it has so far caused.

The NGOs demanding the moratorium on license issuance are the Indonesia Environment Forum (WALHI), the Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM), the Women`s Solidarity, the People`s Coalition for Fishery Justice (KIARA) and the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL).

"The government must declare a moratorium on natural resource licences be they for mining or forest conversion. The licenses already issued meanwhile must be reviewed," Walhi`s executive director Berry Nahdian Furqon said at a press conference at the JATAM office here on Thursday.

The NGOs had demanded moratoruim on licences for mining, natural forest conversion into industrial forests and construction development in catchment areas or green belts.

Berry said natural resource exploitation would bring a bad impact on the community such as increasing floods and areas affected by them.

According to Walhi floods occured in 34 districts and cities in the country in January to February this year leaving 55 people dead.

In 2009 a total of 179 floods were recorded in the country, claiming 225 lives.

Jatam`s national coordinator Siti Maemunah meanwhile said in Kalimantan that produces more than 200 million tons of coal a year had continued to suffer environmental quality degradation.

She said coal mining licenses in the region reach more than 2,000, causing poverty, environmental disasters, conflicts, health problems, accute corruption that have strengthened gender inequality.

Every year she said more than 200,000 food producing lands change into coal mining areas to worsen food reliance of the local people.

Licenses for oilpalm plantations and logging meanwhile reached 8.4 million hectares of the planned 26 million hectares according to Sawit Watch, she said.

She said the activities had caused minimaly 576 conflicts one of them from the destruction of traditional forests by PT Ledo Lestari in Semunying Jaya in the subdistrict of Jagoi, Babang, Bengkayand district in West Kalimantan.

The House Commission III in a meeting with the ministries of the environment, forestry, and energy and mineral resources on Tuesday had called on the ministry of energy and mineral resoruces and the ministry of forestry to conduct synchronization with regard to the draft government regulation on protection and management of the environment to maintain sustainability of natural resources in the country.

The synchronization includes among others exploitation and/or reservation of natural resources including determination of mining areas and authorities with regard to natural resource inventories and environment licenses as well as environmental risk analysis.(*)

`Stop new business permits' for the sake of the environment
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 20 Feb 10;

A group of activists have urged the government to stop issuing new business permits to exploit natural resources due to poor regulation and the high number of overlapping permits.

They also called on the government to review licenses that had been given to companies that were yet to start operation.

The calls for a moratorium were made by the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the Women's Solidarity and People's Coalition for Justice in Fishery (Kiara).

They said that a temporary moratorium on business permits was urgent in order to allow time for the government to settle the policies needed to manage natural resources for the benefit of the people.

Jatam chairwoman Siti Maimunah said that in some provinces, the total number of business licenses awarded to companies to exploit natural resources far exceeded the entire land mass of the province.

"They *local authorities* no longer use common sense when issuing permits," Maimunah told a press conference on Thursday. Most of the permits were for mining and plantations, she added.

In East Kalimantan, she said, the total number of overlapping licenses awarded to mining and plantations had reached 21.7 million hectares, but the province's total area of land was only 19.8 million hectares.

"We are not against mining or plantation activities as long as they comply with the regulations. But now, selling permits has become a lucrative business for local authorities," she said.

The coalition said that despite the operation of big companies, the people of Kalimantan, which produced more than 200 million tons of coal per year, remained in poverty.

"Ecological disasters, social conflicts and health problems coupled with a high rate of poverty are still common in provinces that are rich in natural resources," she said.

The Environment Ministry found that most small-scale coal mining firms in East and South Kalimantan failed to produce environmental impact analysis (Amdal) documents, with a number of big companies failing to reclaim their former mining pits.

Executive director of the ICEL Rhino Subagyo, said the ministry was slow to act to protect the environment.

"The office of the environment ministry remains unmoved although it has the authority to act under the 2009 Environmental Law," he said.

The law requires the government to set an inventory on environment to map the capacity and the availability of natural resources.

The inventory is designed to be the basis for policy makers to determine strategic plans on environmental protection and management.

The law also obliges local administrations to formulate strategic environmental assessments to evaluate impacts that could harm the environment.

Under the law, each company should have environmental permits before starting operations.

"We are disappointed with the lack of willingness to impose the environmental law," Rhino said.

The House of Representative's Commissions VII overseeing environmental affairs has summoned the relevant ministries to discuss the issue.