Pulp mill study approval upsets environmentalists

Pulp mill study approval upsets environmentalists

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi)
criticized the government yesterday for accepting an incomplete
feasibility study for the development of a giant pulp mill in
South Sumatra.

The study, commissioned by PT Tanjung Enim Lestari Pulp and
Paper, reportedly failed to take into account the project's
negative impacts on people in surrounding areas.

"Learning from the accumulative impacts (from the clearing of
the site) of the project over the years, it is environmentally
unfeasible. The plan to construct the factory, therefore, must be
scrapped," Chalid Muhammad of the Walhi told a press conference.

PT Tanjung Enim Lestari plans to start building the Rp 2.6
trillion (US$1 billion) pulp mill as soon as it gains a business
license from the government. Licenses will only be awarded after
a project's environmental impact assessment (AMDAL) has been
endorsed.

The company's study was endorsed Monday by the Ministry of
Industry and Trade's Central Commission for AMDAL despite Walhi's
protests.

Walhi representatives attended the presentation of the
company's study to the commission.

Authorized staff at the Environmental Impact Management
Agency, which endorses the studies, could not be reached for
comment yesterday.

Chalid said, "The commission only jotted down our objections,
and it only provided trivial explanations to our questions."

Chalid alleged that the study failed to address the
destruction of forest caused by the clearing of 1,250 hectares
for the pulp mill and its industrial estate.

"It has endangered the lives of people in the five villages in
the area whose livelihood depends on the rubber plantation that
has been felled," he said.

The mill's site crosses two subdistricts, Gunung Megang and
Rambang Dangku, in Muara Enim regency, about 130 kilometers west
of South Sumatra's capital of Palembang.

Walhi said the environmental impact assessment failed to
mention the relationship between the mill and the timber estate
PT Musi Hutan Persada, which will supply the mill's timber.

The mill is scheduled to start operating by the year 2000 with
an initial capacity of 450,000 tons of pulp a year.

In its first year of production, the mill is expected to
process about two million cubic meters of wood.

"By ignoring the connection between the two, the study has
failed to see whether the mill's raw material supplier complies
with the environmental law and other laws," Chalid said.

PT Tanjung Enim is owned by Barito Pacific Group (with a 51
percent holding), Sumatra Pulp Corporation (33 percent) and PT
Tridan Satriaputra Indonesia (16 percent).

PT Tridan Satriaputra is controlled by President Soeharto's
daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana.

Sumatra Pulp Corporation is a joint venture of Marubeni
Corporation, Nippon Paper Industries and Japan's Overseas
Economic Cooperation Fund.

Musi Persada is 60 percent owned by Barito Pacific Group and
40 percent by state-owned PT Inhutani II. Musi Persada has
reforested 155,000 hectares of its 300,000-hectare concession,
which lies about 25 kilometers south of the mill.

Livelihood

Walhi said the study also failed to mention unfair land
appropriation by the company, which forced locals to sell their
rubber plantations.

Tamim, 57, a local farmer who came from his hometown of Muara
Niru village to attend the press conference, said he was only
offered Rp 300 (12 cents) a meter for his land.

Another villager, Umar, 46, said that he and his fellow
villagers only wanted a clear explanation on the possible
environmental impacts of the mill when it starts production.

Walhi said, "There will have to be rehabilitation and
compensation from the company for all the environmental impacts
and disadvantages that the people have suffered from this
project."

Walhi said that land clearing should not have begun before the
study had been endorsed. (aan)