Environmental analysis on golf course turned down
Environmental analysis on golf course turned down
JAKARTA (JP): The City Administration's Commission on
environmental impact has turned down an Environmental Impact
Analysis (Amdal) on the development of a nine hole golf course on
Bira Island, North Jakarta.
Ali Azhar, an executive of the Indonesian Forum for
Environment (Walhi), told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the
study was rejected because it failed to meet requirements set by
the commission.
Amdal is a mandatory assessment which must be presented by a
developer to ensure that any development will not produce
unwanted effects to the surrounding environment.
The rejected analysis was prepared by a consulting firm, which
was hired by the golf course project owner, who in 1993 began
cutting down the island's forest to build the 20-hectare golf
course despite the absence of the required assessment.
Bira Island is one of the 78 islands in North Jakarta which is
part of the 108,000-hectare national marine park in the Seribu
Islands chain.
The absence of the necessary assessment of the project
immediately sparked bitter criticisms both from environment
organizations and members of the City Council, who insisted that
the project owner make the environmental impact analysis.
The owner of the project made the study, but it was rejected
by the Amdal Commission. It was the third time an analysis had
been presented to the Commission, first on Sept. 22 last year,
then on Dec. 2 and again on Feb. 10 this year.
"None of the three presentations meet the requirement so the
Amdal Commission decided to reject them," Ali said.
The study, for example, did not give satisfying answers to the
Amdal Commission's questions regarding the use of harmful
pesticide on the golf course, water usage on the island and the
up to 60 percent land utilization limit of the island, which
could be used for tourism purposes, he said.
Ali said that the Amdal Commission, whose members consist of
representatives of the city administration, the Environmental
Impact Management Agency, the Jakarta chapter of the Ministry of
Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, Walhi and the World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF), will form an independent team to make a
new study.
"The members of the team will include representatives of the
Amdal Commission, independent experts and the project owner," Ali
added. (hhr)