Contribution of mining to forest degradation

Contribution of mining to forest degradation

By: Soemarno Witoro Soelarno

The so deep worries about forest damage in Indonesia among various parties in the country and in other countries is understandable because Indonesia is one of the five countries still having vast areas of tropical forests, and the forests are rich in biodiversity. Moreover, Indonesia?s forests also function as the world?s lunges which neutralize pollution caused by various activities from other parts of world.

For Indonesia itself, the environmental function of forests is of so high importance. So many natural disasters have occurred in different provinces where no more forests are found. Among the causes behind forest disappearance, which has been widely held so far, was mining activities. Major media organizations have carried reports about this matter while the accuracy of such news stories are not proven yet. The inaccuracy has led the public to believe that mining has been the main cause of forest degradation in Indonesia. Still, such worries should be appreciated. There needs to be commitment of the whole Indonesian nation to take stance and take comprehensive measures for forest protection, while keeping in mind the greater goal of the nation namely how it can get out of economic crisis and continue its development programs to improve the welfare of the people. Surely, all this can materialize by relying on all of our potentials. The various issues released by the media will be discussed in this article, by presenting some data which had been published.

Land surface damage by Mining Activities

Concession holders are obliged to submit data about the using of land surface in forest and non-forest areas for mining exploration to Director General of Geology and Mineral Resources. Such reports must be made every six months. Monitoring by the government is necessary for carrying out supervision over the effectiveness of mining activities.

The using of land for mining exploration, which only examines rocks on land surface and drilling for obtaining exemplary rocks from underground, is viewed as not necessarily be monitored. This is because such activities cause so limited damages. But, exploration for finding mineral potentials indeed requires vast areas of land. Such exploration is important for knowing mineral potentials of the nation, and without exploration such natural wealth could never be known.

Data at the Directorate General of Geology and Mineral Resources (DJGSM) issued by end 2001 shows that total area of mining exploitation awarded to 162 mining investors reached 1.8 million hectares. Of the area, 56,000 hectares have been opened for mining. And of the 56,000 hectares, 17,500 hectares have been reclaimed. Estimated total area of land used for mining and related infrastructure has also established by Clive Aspinaii, a Canadian mining observer. His estimate is that total area of land with its surface being damaged due to mining activities in Indonesia reached 138,000 hectares (1998).

Data at DJGSM shows that the real damage on land surface which occurred when mining activities were being carried out does not exceed 7% of total concession area. This figure will become much lower when compared with total area of protected forests which reached 35 million hectares (1997), or less than 0.4%. Moreover, compared with total forest area, it is less than 0.09%.

Land surface damage due to Forest Concession Activities

World Bank?s January 2000 report shows that total forest concession (HPH) area of Forest Concessions reached 69.4 million hectares in 1998. Land surface damage caused by HPH logging activities reached 16.57 million hectares, or 24% of total area of HPH, which is quite high figure. The damage was caused by reforestation programs which did not go smoothly although they were supported with the so-called Reforestation Guarantee Fund scheme for the forestry sector.

With assumption that all mining activities are carried out in forest areas and reclamation has not been carried out in therein, forest damages caused by mining activities are estimated to be 0.345 only, which is much lower than the figure of the HPH logging.

Land surface damage caused by other activities

1998 data shows that land used for industrial reforestation (HTI) reaches 4.7 million hectares, while land for plantations and agriculture are 3.8 million hectares and 13.4 million hectares respectively. However, it is not known yet total area of abandoned land which has caused its environmental function not effective. As a result, analyses of the contribution of land surface damage to the environmental function of forests could not be undertaken.

As for shrimp farming which has led to the conversion of vast areas of mangrove forests into shrimp ponds, as reported by Media Indonesia daily on its June 24,2002 issue, half of the 4.2 hectares of mangrove forests had been damaged because they were developed into shrimp ponds and resettlement areas. From that figure, it could be estimated that the contribution of mangrove forest degradation due to shrimp farming is much bigger than mining activities.

Old mining land must be reclaimed in a progressive way, and must go in balance with progress of land clearance for mining. Accordingly, it can be expected that land open for mining relatively remains the same in area. Technical regulations about reclamation were issued by the Minister of Mines in 1977, which were followed up on with Technical Guidelines for Old Mine Reclamation which was issued in 1993 by Director General of General Mining. However, regulations on guarantee over reclamation were issued only in 1996, which referred to reclamation policies issued by Office of Surface Mining in the United States. The reclamation guarantee is calculated by evaluated companies themselves, and is later evaluated by a unit at DJGSM. Eventually, Director General of Geology and Mineral Resources issued a ruling to approve it.

Reclamation programs are designed for a period of five years, and funds required for the programs are guaranteed to the Government through three forms namely cash deposit, third party guarantee, and accounting reserve. The guarantee funds can be disbursed in phases in accordance with reclamation progress. The government will use the funds only for reclamation activities in case the companies concerned fail to do reclamation by themselves. But, if the funds are not enough for reclamation programs, companies concerned must provide additional amounts. The implementation of reclamation projects must be reported and evaluated every six months, and such evaluation turns out data about the progress of land use for activities explained above.

Comparing the progress of forest damage which is around 1.5-2 million hectares annually with the progress of land clearance for mining, which is coupled with progress of land reclamation, it is found that mining contributes so little to the progress of forest damage.

Land compensation in forest area rent

Miners carrying out activities in forest areas, according to regulations issued before Law No. 41 Year 1999, are obliged to compensate such activities or spare other areas for development of new forests. However, such compensation does not apply for Java, Bali and Lampung which are already crowded. Other regions are obliged to give compensation: 1:1 (one time the size of rented land) for state enterprises, and 1:2 for private companies. This ruling will be furthered regulated by a presidential decree in accordance with Government Decree No. 34 Year 2002 dated June 8, 2002 on Forest System and Outlining of Plan for Forest Management, Forest Utilization and Forest Area Utilization.

Data at DJGSM shows that from 1987 to 2000 total area of compensation land and was 361,000 hectares. This means that the mining sector?s contribution to the expansion of forest areas is much bigger than total area of land used for mining activities.

Factors of overlapping between forestry and mining sectors

Overlapping between forestry activities and other undertakings, including mining sector activities, would nearly always happen in the future. This is because forest areas (1998) reach 147 million hectares or 78% of Indonesia?s total area land which is 189 million hectares. Moreover, protected forest area will continue to increase due to the implementation of Law No. 41 Year 1999.

Naturally, mineralization of an area is very closely related to its underground contents, which is characterized among others by the formation of volcanoes. Lines of highlands like the ones along southern Java and western Sumatra were formed due to ocean lithospheres kept moving, at a speed of 7-10 cm per year, and penetrating well beneath land lithosphere (Simanjuntak & Barber, 1996). The meeting of the two lithospheres caused the creation of mountains with steep slopes, many of which were volcanoes.

Lithospheres in Indonesia are young in terms of geological scales so that mineralization areas which have mountains with steep slopes are nearly evenly spread throughout the country except Kalimantan which is old geologically. With the decision of the criteria that protected forests are those located in areas with over 40% slant, the reality we encounter at present is that so many areas rich in natural resources are protected forests.

Consequently, a new question needs to be raised namely how to decide criteria of protected areas in a natural way which are acceptable to all parties so that it could be established that the areas really have protection function so that all parties agree that no activity is allowed in therein. This is many arid land areas have been decided to be protected forests, or they have been given such status after they no longer had forests.

Factors of bias of perception about mining

The contents of media articles have made those well-versed in mining affairs feel uncomfortable. This is because writers of the articles have less knowledge and understanding about:

• The difference between mining which adopts bad technology, notably the one carried out by miners without official concessions (PETI), and mining with best mining practices which is undertaken by educated mining experts.

• The difference between the application of exploration technology and exploitation technology so that exploitation impacts are viewed as similar to exploration impacts. Exploitation (in open pit mining) causes changes of land span, whereas exploration does not.

• The difference of land area needed for exploration and exploitation. Exploration which aims to find mineral reserve underground requires vast areas of land. On the contrary, exploitation sets limit to land opening because mineralization areas are generally concentrated on limited sites, except coal segments and alluvial soil which can be found in relatively large areas.

Conclusion

Data and analysis presented above show that mining in fact does not contribute to forest damages. Accordingly, comprehensive policies on reforestation require mapping of the causes of forest damages namely development activities or/even unsuitable government policies.

In a wider context, deciding protected and conservation forests in the future needs to be conducted carefully, taking into account national interests. It should no longer happen that certain areas will be decided to be world heritage objects like what had happened with an area in eastern Indonesia. According to calculations made in 1997, the management of and cultivation of the area?s natural resources could contribute to the state Rp21 trillion annually. Up to date, it is not yet known, or it may not have been popularized, the advantages enjoyed by this state and nation from the world heritage forest. (*)

The writer is a senior staff member at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.