Lampung govt to mediate in mangrove land dispute

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung

The Lampung provincial government is planning to hold negotiations in the near future to mediate between large commercial shrimp concessionaires and local residents who claim the government had no right to dole out their ancestral mangrove land.

Besides mediating, the negotiations are also aimed at providing solutions for the increasingly widespread deforestation in the mangrove areas.

"We are hoping to save the mangrove forests, while at the same time, we can reconcile the interests of the companies and the local residents," Harris Hasyim, the head of the Lampung provincial Planning and Development Body, said on Thursday.

Harris was commenting on recent complaints from shrimp pond companies upset over what they have termed "illegal occupation" of their government-granted concession areas in the mangroves by thousands of local residents who have made their own shrimping areas over the last few years.

The areas in dispute include the Sungai Burung area in Seputih subdistrict, the Sungai Sidang area of Rawadjitu district and Sungai Nibung in Gedong Meneng subdistrict.

The companies include PT Central Pertiwi Bahari (PT CPB) and PT Dipasena Citra Dharmaja (PT DCD).

Harris said that the government was planning to raise the issue of reforestation in the planned forum in order to rejuvenate the mangrove forests. Reforestation will prevent erosion problems along Lampung's coasts.

He did not spell out in detail how much funding would be necessary to finance the reforestation programs, but he appealed to the private companies to support the program.

The government could also step up efforts to educate people on the importance of the mangroves, he said.

Asked about demands by the companies to have security forces forcibly remove the residents from their own villages, Harris promised that the government would not let such an eviction occur. "Both the companies and the local residents will work for a win-win solution in the case," he said.

PT CPB has reported that at least 833 residents had "occupied" 2,000 hectares of their concession area at Sungai Burung over the last two years. PT DCD reported that local residents had "occupied" more than 3,000 hectares on their concession in Sungai Sidang hamlet over the last few months.

However, local residents have a very different perspective on the situation. They maintain that it is their ancestral land and even the Dutch colonial administration acknowledged that and respected that. The mangroves were taken over and marketed as concessions during the Soeharto regime.

Johannes Kitono, a spokesman for CPB, said that his company was ready to settle the dispute through negotiations. He also agreed with Harris that the security approach should be the last resort.

The local residents' boldness to again return to their ancestral lands for shrimping increased in Lampung after the downfall of Soeharto, who likely would not have hesitated to use the security approach to kick the small-scale shrimpers off their land.