Entering the second month of 2021, Indonesia continues to be on the massive threat of disasters like earthquake in Sulawesi, landslides in West Java, followed by flooding in Kalimantan and two volcanic eruptions in most inhabited island, Java. The National Board for Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) has mentioned that until the end of January 2021, Indonesia has attacked by 185 disasters. It’s no longer a joke when almost 170 individuals became victims and majority of them were displaced.
Amongst all of the disaster, the shocking and tremendous one was the big floods in Kalimantan where 11 districts are inundated, 403.405 people become the victims and have to be relocated, and almost 80.000 houses are damaged. This crisis is triggered not only because of the excessive rainfalls, but also because of the rapid degradation of natural resources and environment in Indonesia, especially in Kalimantan. A contradicts with the statement of President Joko Widodo about South Kalimantan flood which blaming the intensity of rainfalls as the major factor which caused flood, the actual data has shown different reality.
Rapid deforestation occurred in Kalimantan due to forest conversion into extractive industries (mining and oil palm plantations). These activities are conducted by neglecting the ecological aspects and also the weak environmental permits, which made South Kalimantan lost two-thirds of their forest. According to the data from Indonesian Space Agency (LAPAN) more than 322,000 hectares of forest land has been destroyed in the past decade. This number indicates that in South Kalimantan or Barito watersheds, the original forest cover has significantly degraded and the natural function of the watershed to absorb the heavy rains and water overflows is also damaged.
Weak Enforcement of Environmental Law and Its Permits
There are plenty of regulations concerning about environmental protection; Law No. 32 of 2009 on The Management and Protection of the Environment and Law No. 23 of 2014 (which lastly amended by Law No. 9 of 2015) on Regional Government, which give autonomy to local government to tackling all issues about regional development (including the protection of environment). Subsequently, Environmental Law which administered and enforced by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia, will be supported by Governors, Head of District or Mayors and other authorities. Besides that, Indonesian government also have environmental permits scheme that required for certain business that may impact on the form of natural resources and landscape, over-exploitation on environment and natural resources, and potentially caused environmental degradation of its utilization. But unfortunately, all of these regulations and permits scheme are having such biased to the current conditions of forest degradation and disaster in Indonesia.
For instance in Law No. 4 of 2009 (which amended by Law No. 3 of 2020) on Mineral and Coal Mining has clearly regulated about the mining business license (Izin Usaha Pertambangan). In accordance with that regulation, Government may establish mining license after having consultation with parliament and local governments. The permit holders are only allowed to extract one type of mineral in the concession area. There are two stages in acquiring the mining permit: exploration permit and operational permit. Related to the mining permit, the permit holders (companies) have to fulfill some requirement provided by Ministry of Environment and Forestry and also local regulations. Not only that, the permit holders also has to approach to the local community and oblige to pay some compensation of the converted land. If all requirements are fulfilled, then the Leasehold of Forest Area License (Izin Pinjam Pakai Kawasan Hutan) can be issued. Despite those normative steps, the permit holders also have to bear with technical procedures (defining the geographic coordinates, making feasibility studies and reclamation plans, and the most crucial one is conducting the re-vegetation plan to ensure the sustainability of the forest. Having the similar pathways with mining permits, to expand the plantation for business activities or commercial, corporations have to followed several steps and permits of plantation business license (Izin Usaha Perkebunan), especially if the plantation expansion is more than 25 hectares. In this phase, Ministry of Environment and Forestry hold the authorities. But if permit holders wanted to have exploitation rights over forests, they have to submit the permit to the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency. All of these steps is regulated in Law No. 18 of 2004 (which amended by Law No.39 of 2014) on Plantation.
Even though many layers of regulation and schemes are applied in forest permits, but still, social scientist and humanitarian workers considered that the current natural degradation followed by ecological disaster are resulted from the rampant of permits for mining and palm oil plantation business. The current data from Jatam has revealed that until June 2020, the forest permits in South Kalimantan is rapidly increased, for about 93 Leasehold of Forest Area License (Izin Pinjam Pakai Kawasan Hutan)is issued by government and 56.727,86 hectares are allocated for mining and plantation, which surely impacted on deforestation and disaster. Furthermore, in South Kalimantan the biggest portion of forest utilization rights is belong to the business or corporations (60%), the remained portion are given to local community, but when they are struggling to live in concession areas, they are always tortured by corporations, either to get sources of food or to stay in the forests. These vivid conditions then raised many contras from green scholars.
Is Forest Moratorium the Only Answer?
Moratorium of the forest permits is not ‘the award-winning’ solution in this circumstance. Critical reviews have to be applied, such as; implementing the frequent evaluation of forest permits and strengthening the environmental law and its enforcement. Besides, the revocation of licenses, and strengthening the criminal and civil law into environmental regulation is very crucial, of course this action should be followed by a strict moratorium on every business activities in forestry, either mining or plantation sector. And last thing which could not be bargained, the participation of local community or civil society organization is very important to monitor every action of corporations. Because what matters the most“..is not holding back the issuance of permits, but showing reality that government is pro to their people and nature..”
