House, Govt to study mining operation in protected forests

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that the government and the House of Representatives would soon discuss the possibility of revising the Forestry Law to end the controversy over the operation of mining areas in protected forests.

Purnomo said that the coordinating meeting would be joined by representatives of the House commissions III and VIII, the forestry ministry, and the energy and mineral resources ministry. "The meeting will be led by Coordinating Minister of Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti," he said.

He hoped that the meeting would be able to find solutions of conflicts related to mining operations in the protected forests. "But we don?t know yet whether the status of protected forests which have been used as mining sites would be changed as productive land," the minister added.

The implementation of the new forestry law, which bans mining activities in protected forests have caused controversy because many mining firms have been permitted to carry out mining activities in some protected areas before the implementation of the law.

Several large mining projects such as the massive nickel mining project which is being developed by PT Gag Nikel Indonesia in Gag island, Papua have been in jeopardy because part of their mining areas overlaps with protected forests.

Although the ministry of forestry has allowed the continuation of such mining projects but their future remains uncertain because the stipulation related to the banning of mining areas in protected forests has not been revised.

The ministry of energy and mineral resource has demanded that the activities on companies, which received their contracts before the implementation of the law, should be exempted from the banning. (*)