SERANG – Community involvement in monitoring sand and rock mining activities in Serang Regency, Banten, is being strengthened. PATTIRO Serang-Banten, together with Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia, is encouraging four community groups to conduct participatory monitoring to identify environmental issues, examine compliance with spatial planning regulations, and push for follow-up action on findings from the field.
This commitment was established through a joint action plan development meeting held at Kirei Art Cafe, Serang City, on Friday (23 October 2026). The meeting involved four community groups: the Gunung Gede Puloampel Community, the Bojonegara Community Care Group, the Mancak Environmental Care Community (MPLH), and the Anyer Forest Farmers Group (KTH).
Executive Director of PATTIRO Serang-Banten, Bahrul Alam, emphasized the importance of community involvement in monitoring mining activities to protect the environment and local communities’ living spaces. According to him, participatory monitoring provides a means for communities to communicate local concerns in a structured and evidence-based manner.
“Mining oversight cannot rely solely on the government. Communities living near mining sites also play an important role because they directly witness changes in environmental conditions and the impacts occurring in their areas. Therefore, community involvement must be strengthened so that residents can monitor activities, collect evidence, and submit reports through appropriate mechanisms,” Bahrul Alam said.
He added that community monitoring must be conducted systematically, with safety as a priority. Every finding should be supported by verifiable documentation and followed up through coordination with the relevant authorities.
“We want this monitoring initiative to go beyond discussions or community complaints. It must lead to concrete actions, starting from identifying issues, collecting field evidence, preparing reports, and pursuing follow-up action through policy advocacy. In this way, community voices can become an important part of efforts to promote mining governance that is more transparent, accountable, and environmentally sustainable,” he added.
Within this framework, monitoring must go beyond simply voicing complaints. Community findings need to be systematically compiled, supported by verifiable evidence, and submitted through clear reporting channels. This approach is expected to strengthen communities’ position in advocacy processes while helping the government obtain field information for investigations and policymaking.
The meeting was facilitated by Ail Muldi, an academic from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University (FISIP Untirta). Participants discussed the division of monitoring areas, evidence collection techniques, reporting channels, and advocacy strategies to ensure that community monitoring generates data that can be followed up by the relevant authorities.
Several issues were highlighted during the discussion, ranging from suspected inconsistencies between mining activities and spatial planning and licensing regulations, risks posed by abandoned mining pits, and the impacts of overloaded mining transport vehicles on road infrastructure. Participants also raised concerns about dust, mud potentially entering irrigation channels, changes in productive land use, and threats to water sources and forest areas.
These issues require systematic and evidence-based monitoring. Communities living near mining sites are in a key position to document changes in environmental conditions. However, all findings must be verified to ensure that submitted reports are accurate and do not lead to misleading conclusions.
Under the initial action plan, monitoring activities will focus on four areas: Mancak, Bojonegara, Pulo Ampel, and Anyer. Agung will coordinate monitoring in Mancak, Saipul in Bojonegara, Boni in Pulo Ampel, and Afifa in Anyer. The initial information-gathering phase is planned to take place over one week.
To ensure that findings can be properly examined, each community is encouraged to document field conditions through photographs and videos accompanied by location coordinates, dates, and timestamps. Supporting information, such as mining permit signboards, road conditions, transport vehicles, and changes in land use, should also be recorded where relevant and whenever it can be obtained safely.
This documentation will serve as the basis for preparing more structured reports. Participants also discussed using a monitoring checklist to ensure that data collected from each area follows a standardized format and can be more easily compared. The findings will be compiled to help identify issues requiring clarification, investigation, or formal complaints to the relevant authorities.
Agung from Mancak emphasized the importance of protection for communities involved in environmental monitoring. Residents need to understand how to collect evidence and submit reports responsibly without exposing themselves to unnecessary risks. Therefore, monitoring activities are expected to prioritize safety, avoid direct confrontation, and make use of available complaint mechanisms.
Participants also noted that support from village governments, Village Consultative Bodies (BPD), community leaders, youth, and environmental groups could strengthen mining oversight. Such collaboration is necessary to ensure that information collected by communities can be submitted through appropriate channels and receive attention from the relevant institutions.
Boni from Pulo Ampel highlighted the importance of improving public understanding of spatial planning and mining policies. This knowledge helps residents identify issues that require investigation, understand the respective authorities of government institutions, and distinguish between allegations and violations that have been legally established.
Reporting channels are also an important component of the action plan. Findings concerning suspected environmental issues can be submitted to environmental agencies, while spatial planning and public order concerns should be referred to institutions with the relevant authority. Issues related to mining permits and technical operations require coordination with the competent provincial authorities. In cases of suspected maladministration in handling complaints, communities may also consider submitting reports to the Ombudsman in accordance with applicable requirements.
PATTIRO Serang-Banten and PWYP Indonesia consider the verification process an essential step before using findings for policy advocacy. The licensing status, compliance with spatial planning regulations, and alleged violations at each location must be further examined to ensure that submitted reports are accurate, balanced, and supported by a clear evidentiary basis.
Following the initial monitoring phase, findings from the four communities will be compiled into an executive summary for further action. The document is intended to support policy dialogue, the submission of formal complaints, and engagement with academics and the media.
Through community-based mining monitoring, residents are expected to become more than just parties experiencing the impacts of mining activities. They should also have the space and opportunity to communicate their findings and push for improvements in mining governance. Consistent monitoring can help strengthen transparency, improve accountability, and encourage more measurable responses from relevant stakeholders.
For Serang Regency, this initiative forms part of broader efforts to ensure that natural resource management prioritizes community safety and environmental sustainability. Protecting productive land, water sources, forest areas, and village living spaces requires community involvement, government support, and responses grounded in data and applicable regulations.
Source: Cadas Banten