Forests down the mine shaft - Currents - Brief Article

Transnational mining companies and foreign governments are lobbying the Indonesian Government to open up protected forest areas, national parks and other protected areas for mining. With approximately four hectares of Indonesian rainforest disappearing every minute, local communities and environmental justice groups have responded by demanding that the protected forest areas remain intact and free from mining.

After intense lobbying from the mining industry, environmental groups and its own Cabinet, the Indonesian House of Representatives has duck-shoved decisions by setting up a scientific committee to consider 158 individual proposals to mine in protected areas. The committee will assess on technical grounds whether projects should proceed and then report back to the Indonesian Parliament.

Twenty-two of these projects--proposed by transnationals--are being fast-tracked through the committee following British and Australian Embassy lobbying to overturn environment protection laws. Now in the fast lane in BHP Billiton's plan to mine the protected forest of Gag Island and dump the waste into a proposed World Heritage marine site.

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Well-organized resistance is springing up from indigenous communities from Borneo to Sulawesi. In North Maluku, 38 village heads and indigenous leaders of the Kao and Malifut peoples are speaking out against Australian Newcrest Mining's push to mine their Toguraci protected forest.

For more information, visit the Mineral Policy Institute website at www.mpi.org.au and click on 'Focus on Indonesia'.

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