Mining in protected forests

From Media Indonesia

As a citizen of a large and respectable country, I fully support the government's policy to allow 15 mining companies to operate in protected forests.

Indonesia must honor its agreements or contracts with other countries. In the case of these mining activities, when the contracts were signed, the proposed mining areas had not yet been identified as protected forest.

Therefore, some non-governmental organization (NGO) activists were wrong when they accused State Minister of the Environment Nabiel Makarim of being ignorant of regulations. Nabiel knows the regulations well. If he did not, he would not have allowed many other mining companies to operate in these protected forests.

In future, when the government fosters cooperation or inks agreements with other parties, it must consider the long-term effect of these deals and must also base them on broad interests.

In the case of these 15 mining companies, the government can exercise tight control over their mining activities to minimize their impact on the environment.

At this juncture, NGO activists, who are mostly intellectuals, can play their role. They may help find solutions to the problems on the ground. If they detect something wrong, they should also be ready to propose a solution.

D. NOVINA, Bogor, West Java