Environmentalists call for new licensing mechanisms
Environmentalists call for new licensing mechanisms
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Environmental experts have called for the introduction of either integrated licensing or a series of licenses for companies to ensure the conservation of natural resources.
Asep Warlan Yusuf, legal advisor to the House of Representatives, and Wiwiek Awiati of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) said on Friday such license mechanisms should be introduced in the planned law of natural resources management.
"We must consider implementing either integrated licensing or a series of licenses, as many firms have so far only exploited natural resources without giving any attention to preserving them," Asep told reporters on the sidelines of a public hearing of a draft bill on natural resources management.
The hearing is expected to continue until April next year before the government submits the bill to the House. The original submission was scheduled for December, but was delayed until April.
Meanwhile, Wiwiek expected many parties to agree with the licensing alternatives.
Asep explained that integrated licensing was a mechanism under which only one coordinating minister would issue a license to a company after having received recommendations from various institutions such as those of the environment, trade, forestry or mining sectors.
He added that the Netherlands implemented such a policy.
The other alternative, a series of licenses, is a mechanism under which ministries could issue individual licenses to firms, but if one license is revoked, the firm must cease operations.
Presently, various ministries can issue sectorial licenses like those on mining exploration and toxic waste management, but a revocation of a license does not affect the firm's operations.
In a statement made available to the participants, the State Ministry of the Environment supported the licensing idea.
The statement said the new licensing mechanism would help preserve natural resources for the sake of the people and at the same time, would help raise the national income.
Besides the need for a new licensing mechanism, the public is to have a say in the exploitation of natural resources from their surrounding areas under the new draft bill.
The draft bill requires government authorities to secure permission from the local community before granting exploration licenses to companies.
During the leadership of former president Soeharto, many forest areas were given to large private companies without public consultation, a move that has contributed to widespread damage to the country's forests.
The draft bill also guarantees the rights of local tribes to manage their ancestral lands, and stipulates that any decision to exploit natural resources on tribal lands would not result in the native peoples from being uprooted from their land.