People to have say in natural resource use

People to have say in natural resource use

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The public will soon have a say in the exploitation of natural
resources in their respective areas.

The draft of a bill on natural resources management, which the
office of the state minister of the environment plans to submit
to the House of Representatives (DPR) next month, requires
government authorities to secure permission from local people
before granting exploitation permits to mining companies.

"This is a positive development on the previous policy, where
decisions on how to manage an area were always made unilaterally
by the central government," said Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri, who
headed a team in charge of drafting the natural resources
management bill.

During the leadership of former president Soeharto, many
forested areas were given over to big private companies without
public consultation, a move that contributed to huge damage to
the country's forests.

The bill also guarantees the rights of local tribes to manage
their ancestral lands. Any decision to exploit natural resources
at tribal land should not result in the tribes being uprooted
from their land, Koesnadi said.

"The formulation of the draft is already stipulated under
People's Consultative Assembly Decree No 9/2001. So,Pak Nabiel
(state minister of the environment) has made a commitment to
submitting the bill to the House next month," Koenadi said before
a meeting to debate the draft bill.

Deputy state minister of the environment for policy and
environmental institutions Hoetomo said on Friday that the bill
should be approved by related ministries before submitting it to
the House for deliberation.

The bill, according to Hoetomo, would function as the legal
basis for carrying out sustainable development in the country.

So far, the country only has laws on specific resources, such
as mining, forestry and others; therefore, conflicting articles
between the laws are rampant.

Koesnadi said the bill would mainly contain sustainability
principles to manage natural resources and would not prioritize
one single sector.

"It will become a reference for other ministries to formulate
law or policy. Existing laws must also be revised if they contain
articles against the proposed bill," he said.

Meanwhile, Daud Silalahi, a member of the team drafting the
bill, said it required the establishment of a council tasked with
implementing the law.

"This body will set up a policy on natural resources
management, recommend the policy to related ministries and
monitor its implementation," he said.

The body could become an alternative institution to mediate on
conflicting policies between ministries, whose final decision
would be binding on all parties.

He said, for example, conflict between the Ministry of Energy
and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Forestry could be
arbitrated by the council.

Hoetomo also gave an assurance that public hearings at which
the bill would be debated would continue to help provide input to
the House.

"This public debate will not be carried out by the House only.
We will go to 13 regions where the bill will be debated with
local stakeholders," he said.

Medan, Palembang, Pekanbaru (Sumatra island); Jakarta,
Surabaya (Java); Mataram (Nusa Tenggara); Pontianak, Balikpapan
(Kalimantan); Makassar, Gorontalo (Sulawesi); and Jayapura
(Papua) will be among the cities to hold public hearings.

Those cities were selected as their provinces are rich in
natural resources, and have a high population, with dynamic
stakeholders.