SITI MAIMUNAH: Courtesy of Siti Maimunah

People may ask why some activists are so tenaciously critical of mining activities in Indonesia.

Siti Maimunah, who has spent many years dealing with the expansion of national and international mining corporations across the country may be able to provide an answer.

"The mining industry is unavoidably destructive. Mining and destructive effects are like two sides of the same coin -- which needs to be managed as a single package, otherwise the destruction will be uncontrollable," Maimunah told The Jakarta Post.

Maimunah's first objection to the mining industry came about in 1999, when the state owned general mining company, PT Aneka Tambang, began damaging Meru Betiri National Park in East Java not far form her hometown of Jember.

At that time, Maimunah was just a member of the Nature Lovers and Environment Observer Community (Kappala) in Yogyakarta.

She later joined the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) as a volunteer, and began learning mining companies' dirty practices.

Intensified poverty, human rights violations and environmental damage were common around mining sites in Indonesia, the 37-year-old said.

Mining companies, she said, created "economic enclaves", widening the gap between rich companies and locals.

"Chasing people off their land has become common. Many people are forced to let go of their land with or without compensation. Sooner or later these people will drown in miserable poverty," said Maimunah, who became Jatam coordinator in 2003.

Mining companies were enjoying profits from mineral resources, while communities hosting mining projects -- such as in Timika in Papua, North Aceh regency in Aceh, Kutai Kartanegara regency in East Kalimantan, Musi Banyuasin regency in South Sumatra and on the north coast of Java -- were struggling with poverty, Maimunah said quoting data from the Central Statistics Agency.

As well as escalating poverty, many mining projects were entangled in human rights violations.

"This industry is perceived to be the state's vital organs, guarded tightly by the police and military. If people have problems with one of these corporations they must face police and the army, not corporations," Maimunah said.

But the worst practice of all, she said, was mining companies' handling of waste.

The most common practice, Maimunah said, is to depose of mining waste at sea -- a method called submarine tailings disposal. This was the cheapest option, but was highly damaging to the environment and is banned in many countries, she said.

Another damaging effect of mining, Maimunah said, was its land and water consumption.

Water has always been a problem in areas hosting mining projects, because they consume large amounts of water for production. PT. Barisan Tropical Mining in Muara Tiku, Sumatra, for example, uses 104 liters of water to extract of one gram of gold.

The amounts of water used are different for each material being mined, but in areas where water is already scarce, mining would exacerbate the problem, Maimunah said.

Maimunah accused foreign mining companies of not only squandering the country's energy and mineral resources, but also of abandoning mining pits without doing any regeneration work, such as the thousands of holes in Bangka Belitung or the giant hole in Ertsberg, Papua.

Countries with hundreds of years of mining experience make it tougher to obtain mining permits, Maimunah said, which ensure that mining companies would respect the environment and the community, for example with costly bonds the governments can be sure that mining companies do not leave mining sites without regenerating the areas.

"Canada announced that over six years they have spent $60 million on postmining rehabilitation work. Spain needs around 200 years to recycle and prevent its acid mine drainage from polluting settlements," Maimunah said.

"The high cost of postmining rehabilitation has made many mining giants turn to developing countries which unfortunately 'hunger for investment'."

Mining regulations in Indonesian have several loopholes which are manifest in royalties and taxes which the government enjoys, "trickling down from the mining industry", Maimunah said.

It's a fallacy to compare the Indonesian mining industry with that of the U.S., Canada or Australia.

Mining developments in those countries have been made in parallel with improvements of human resources, while mining in Indonesia was "primitively managed", she said.

"Most (mining companies in Indonesia) produce only half-finished materials ... so this country is essentially a dredging site for foreign companies."

Mining in other countries is largely conducted to satisfy public need, while most of the energy and mineral resources in Indonesia was for export, she said.

Maimunah cited South Kalimantan as an example. Around 70 percent of the coal mined in that province is exported to 14 countries, 25 percent goes to supply electricity in Sumatra, Java and Bali and about 5 percent is shared between South and Central Kalimantan.

"The government sacrifices our environment to satisfy foreign greed," she said.

The government, should calculate Indonesia's limitations, Maimunah said. As an archipelago, Indonesia is more vulnerable to mining than mainland countries like the U.S. or Australia. The destruction of one area could easily spread to another by sea, she said.

"It's funny .... We fly into a rage when other countries usurp our islands, but we never manage them from an archipelagic point of view," she said.

Unfortunately, she said, government officials are never concerned about the dangers of mining, because they are usually preoccupied with trying to lure investors into the country for the sake of royalties.

Regional autonomy rather than promoting transparency and shortening bureaucratic chains, had been taken by local governments as authorization to plunder the environment.

Local governments provided access to all areas for mining exploration, including protected forests, indigenous people's land and small islands with fragile marine ecosystems.

Data from the Energy and Mineral Resource Department shows that 158 mining companies hold permission to conduct exploitation activities within protected areas. Jatam found that these permits cover some 11.4 million hectares of protected forest.

"Mining has a huge potential for destruction, so the perspective that mineral resources are simply a 'commodity' needs to change.

"Technology is still advancing and we could still acquire these mineral deposits safely in the future.

"The products of mining should be useful for the whole community, not just for a handful of people," Maimunah said.

Corporate social responsibility programs, she said, were just greenwash campaigns.

"These companies only provide something that will vanish once they leave their pits," Maimunah said, adding that these programs were also used as political tools that could make one group fight another.

The negligence of the Indonesian mining industry has led Maimunah to believe mining should be a last resort to serve the community's energy needs.

"Not many people care about the impacts of mining which in fact contribute greatly to global warming. Mining is a crucial issue. It is unsustainable, and it kills sustainable things."

Nullifying mining contracts was the only way to tackle mining negligence, she said.

"It's time to put a stop to all existing exploitation. It's time to recover -- and the government should endorse sustainable industries like agriculture and forestry.

"If we can't manage our mining industry properly, we should only use it as a last resort."

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