Fidelis E. Satriastanti – Activists have blasted a presidential decree that allows underground mining in protected areas, saying it will result in the exploitation of forest ecosystems.
Hendrik Siregar, a campaigner with the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), said on Tuesday that the decree signed last month went against the government's commitment to protecting the environment.
"[Forests] need to be guarded because of their ecological value. No kind of mining, no matter the method, should be taking place in protected areas," he said.
Under the decree, resource exploitation in protected forests is allowed as long as it is done underground and does not violate the terms of use on the land. The regulation also requires operators to build infrastructure that supports production activities in the protected area.
To qualify for a permit, applicants must compensate the government with land that is twice the area of the concession they are seeking to mine. They are also obliged to replant trees and rehabilitate river catchment areas of the same size as their concession. The permits are valid for 20 years and can be extended.
Hendrik said that while the government had touted the geothermal power industry as one of the beneficiaries of this decree, there were no provisions in it specifically mentioning anything about geothermal exploitation.
Dyah Paramita, a researcher with the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law, said the decree allowed miners to bypass existing prohibitions against mining in protected areas defined by the Forestry Ministry.
"It sets no environmental standards for underground mining," she said. "This decree wasn't well thought out. It's as if the government said, 'Let's just put this thing out there first, then we'll think about the impact to the environment later.'?"
Dyah also said that with few miners now meeting their obligations to rehabilitate land, there was no guarantee that underground miners would leave forests intact.
She said: "Let's be frank here – we're still having difficulties with rehabilitation from surface mining, so how do you expect it to go with underground mining?
"It's truly regrettable that this decree was issued because protected areas serve a crucial function as catchments of underground water," Dyah said. "How do we know that underground mining won't affect these water reserves? We can't even fully monitor the impacts of surface mining, so how do you monitor something hidden?"