House to talk to local govts concerning new mining policy

The House of Representatives will seek input from provincial and regency administrations before deciding on the government's proposal to allow some 22 mining companies to resume operations in protected forests.

Legislator Andas P. Tanri of House Commission III on forestry affairs said that the voice of the regional governments was important because it was their respective areas and the lives of the local people which would be directly affected by the mining activities.

"Their input will be a decisive factor for us to decide which mining companies are eligible to resume operation," Andas told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The new plan was reached during a closed-door meeting late on Thursday with the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

He said that the House was expected to make a decision by the third week of October.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources had earlier proposed 22 mining companies, mostly owned by foreign investors, to be allowed to resume open mining activities in protected forests. The move is seen as an effort to boost short-term economic growth in the eastern part of Indonesia as most of the mining companies are located in Sulawesi, Papua and Maluku.

The above mining companies were part of more than 50 mining firms which had to stop operations in 1999 following the introduction of a sustainable forestry law which banned open-pit mining in protected forests. The companies have since launched a protest as they had invested billions of dollars before their mining areas were designated as protected forest.

Environmentalists are enraged by the new government policy as they believe it would cause irreversible ecological damage. Some local administrations have also expressed disagreement over the plan.

For example, the Palu administration in Central Sulawesi had voiced its opposition against the government policy to allow mining firm PT Citra Palu Minerals, which is owned by Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, to resume its operation in the local forest area.

The local administration argued that the move would adversely affect the quality of local water resources. (*)