IMA to file judicial review on mining activities in protected area
Monday, December 11 2006 - 02:12 AM WIB
IMA?s executive director Priyo Pribadi told the daily in Jakarta that the regulation that prohibits miners from conducting mining activities (in protected forest land) has hampered investment in mining and hurt the operation of the existing mining companies.
?Our intention (of filing a judicial review) is that we want to ask all parties to think strategically that all sectors, including mining has equal right to contribute revenue to the state that benefits national economy,? he said.
According to Priyo, the association will hold a dialog and consultation with law experts and mining specialists to prepare for the planned judicial review. ?Based on the outcome of the consultation and dialog, we will formulate which articles in the law that need to be amended or replaced,? he said.
He said that the implementation of Law No. 4/1999 which was completed with the Forestry Ministerial Regulation P.14/Menhut-II/2006 on the Guideline of Forest Land Lease has placed a burden on the mining industry.
The guideline of the forest land lease obliges every mining company that uses forest area to set aside one percent of the production cost for forestry sector.
On top of that, the company is also required to provide replacement land which is double than the existing area that the company operates and the replacement land should be free of legal matters. Under the guideline, the company is also required to conduct reclamation programs and cetera.
Meanwhile, Director general of mineral, coal and geothermal resources at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Simon Sembiring said that the forestry regulation that overlaps with that of mining has resulted in a dilemmatic problem.
Simon denied that mining sector has been the cause of the damages to forest. The fact is that the land used for mining activities accounts for less than one percent of the total land area in Indonesia, he said.
He said that the issue of the overlapping of regulation has been brought to the Coordinating Minister for Economy. ?At this level, we have proposed that the issue of the obligation to set aside one percent of the mining company?s production cost can be solve through win-win solution. But up till now, we do not know the result yet,? he said. (*)