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Growth first, environment later. Proposed legal revision relaxes mining restrictions
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The Tutupan coal mine (pictured above in March 2011) is one of the mining blocks owned by PT Adaro Indonesia in Balangan district, South Kalimantan. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)
P
roposed changes to the 2009 Mining Law make clear that the government will prioritize economic growth at the risk of overlooking its environmental commitments.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, which leads the drafting process for the revision, plans to loosen several restrictions to boost downstream mining industry growth. While miners welcome the government’s efforts, environmentalists and some lawmakers have raised questions over the revision’s impact on natural disaster mitigation and coal consumption.
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif listed on Thursday five principles in the proposed revision, the first of which was economic growth. Trailing behind that principle were energy security, resource scarcity, environmental protection and sustainable development.
“There has to be economic growth,” he reiterated at a meeting in Jakarta with House of Representatives Commission VII, which oversees energy policy.
Notable relaxations include quadrupling the maximum size of traditional mining zones (WPR) to 100 hectares (ha), erasing minimal concession sizes for mining firms and revoking a 40-year mining limit for mining companies that build smelters. There is also a revision that would allow mining activity in rivers and the sea.
Indonesia wants more bang for its buck from its mineral wealth by forcing miners to develop downstream industries, such as mineral smelters and coal-fired power plants. The country enforces this by banning exports of all metal ore by 2022 and coal by 2046, but also promotes development by relaxing regulations and offering incentives.
“Not a single principle of revisions side with environmental protection,” said commission member Ratna Juwita Sari, a National Awakening Party (PKB) politician representing East Java, at the hearing. Fellow commission member Dyah Roro Esti, a Golkar member representing East Java, expressed a similar concern.
