Lampung govt to mediate in mangrove land dispute

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.