Coal miners urged to stop mining activities in forest areas

The provincial administration of South Kalimantan has asked a number of coal miners in the province including PT Antang Gunung Meratus (AGM) to stop their mining operations in industrial forest areas, Kompas reported on Wednesday.

South Kalimantan's governor Rudy Arifin said that the coal miners did not have leasing permits from the ministry of forests to carry out mining activities in the productive forests areas.

"If they want to carry out the mining activities, they should first apply for a leasing permit from the ministry of forests. But to get the license, they have to meet a number of requirements including an agreement from the owner of the industrial forests," he said.

According to him, the size of the forests areas which have been overlapped with mining concession reaches thousands of hectares. He cited that about 4,000 hectares of PT AGM overlapped with the industrial forests owned by state owned forestry company PT Inhutani III. PT AGM could not apply the leasing permit from the ministry of forests because PT

Inhutani still disagreed to surrender its forest area to the coal mining company.

The size of mining concessions overlapping with forest areas in the province has reached a total of 293,264 hectares. Most of the mining companies owning such concession areas have yet obtained the leasing permits from the ministry of forests to carry out mining activities in these areas. (*)