Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Environmentalists on Wednesday renewed calls for the city administration to stop an ongoing land reclamation project that allegedly threatens the livelihoods of thousands of people.

Dozens of members of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) staged a rally in front of City Hall to protest the project.

"We use the momentum of Independence Day celebrations to remind the administration to stop the reclamation project.

"The next phase of the project involves evicting thousands of fishermen living on the North Jakarta coast," Slamet Daroyni, the executive director of Walhi's Jakarta chapter, said. No city official met with the protesters.

Walhi, according to Slamet, had received complaints over the project from fishermen in Cilincing, Kamal Muara and Marunda areas. The fishermen said reclamation works had killed fish in the area and their way of life.

"We hope the new governor of Jakarta will side with poor people like fishermen and stop the reclamation project," he said. He said the project would also only worsen flooding in the capital and destroy fisheries, mangrove swamps and coral reefs.

Incumbent Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo will be the city's first directly elected governor after his installment in October.

The reclamation project involving three provinces – Cilincing in Bekasi, West Java; Penjaringan in North Jakarta, and Dadap in Tangerang, Banten – aims to modify a 32-kilometer stretch of the city's northern coastline.

The project is expected to add about 2,700 hectares to the city. The land has already been designated for industrial parks, hotels, office building and upscale accommodation for up to 1.19 million residents.

Walhi has protested the reclamation project since 2003 after the State Ministry for the Environment issued a decree rejecting it.

The ministry argued the environmental impact analysis for the project needed to be issued by the central government because the project would damage the environment in neighboring provinces.

However, companies involved in the reclamation project appealed the case to the State Administrative Court in 2004 and won. Walhi and the ministry subsequently appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

Slamet said the administration should not continue with the reclamation work as the Supreme Court had yet to issue a verdict on the project.

Governor Sutiyoso, however, said reclamation was a common practice in coastal cities worldwide, adding that he would stop the project if it were proven to be harmful to the environment.