Pontianak – The urgency and demand for a moratorium on mining permits is once again being voiced. This time it comes from the island of Kalimantan, an island rich in natural resources, including extractive resources.
The mining outputs from this island are among the pillars of state revenue across various sectors, including oil and gas, bauxite, coal, and other mining.
However, behind the large-scale extractive mining activity, the island of Kalimantan faces a significant ecological crisis, resulting in various environmental and socio-economic impacts on communities in mining regions. The calls for a moratorium were delivered through a media discussion titled “Urgency of a Mining Permit Moratorium: Encouraging Improvements in Mineral and Coal Mining Governance and the Regulation of Illegal Mining in Kalimantan,” held by civil society organizations within the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia Kalimantan Regional Coalition, conducted in a hybrid format in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on 28 November 2025.
Gemawan West Kalimantan (Kalbar) views that mining impacts are felt mainly through a small group of people, not by the general public. Yet its negative consequences are felt widely. Ecological crises are increasingly occurring across the areas surrounding mines, including in Kalbar, a mining-producing region.
“So far, mining practices have only benefited certain parties, especially corporations. Meanwhile, local communities and Indigenous peoples do not receive significant benefits and instead have to suffer the ecological damage caused by mining activities. The ecological crisis in West Kalimantan today requires the government to implement a moratorium on mining permits. A moratorium can at least provide space for evaluation so that the use of mining resources in the future can be felt more broadly by local communities while still maintaining ecological sustainability,” said Arniyanti, Head of the Training and Learning Centre (TLC) of Gemawan Kalbar.
From WALHI Kalbar, the urgency of a moratorium is seen in the context of people’s managed territories. According to the Head of the People’s Territory Management Division of WALHI Kalbar, Andre Illu, Indigenous peoples have their own capacities to manage natural resource territories. But in terms of permitting, the state is more focused on issuing permits rather than regulating them. This is done without considering the space/territory as a place lived in by Indigenous communities. The land is seen merely as potential or empty space, not as a place inhabited by people.
“The government has failed to carry out equitable spatial planning. The state often secures or becomes a security apparatus for investment. A moratorium does not solve mining problems, but at the very least, it provides space to reorganize mining to be better, while giving room for communities to be saved,” he said.
In East Kalimantan (Kaltim), Pokja 30 highlights two crucial issues in mining: the implementation of mine reclamation and the low level of transparency and public information disclosure. According to the Coordinator of Pokja 30, Buyung Marajo, reclamation implementation is often not carried out optimally. Some even fail to meet requirements. On the other hand, abandoned mining pits—left without reclamation—have claimed lives, such as children who died in the former mining pits.
“This condition is, of course, caused by weak oversight, the high cost of reclamation, which makes companies reluctant to carry it out. In Kaltim, various types of permits are overcrowding the area, the largest and most numerous. This extractive industry is wasteful and greedy for land, and will certainly push aside people’s living space. Mining is carried out in the name of investment to pursue regional and national revenue. In contrast, around mining sites, welfare is an illusion except for pockets of poverty, prolonging people’s suffering. Until now, the government’s seriousness as an overseer still needs to be questioned in light of the damage occurring,” he said.
At the same time, public access to mining information remains limited. Obligations and compliance with information disclosure by mining companies and the government are considered half-hearted, from complex information access procedures to slow responses to mining-related information requests.
“Information access is difficult and slow. Enough of these permits being issued; it is time for a moratorium on mining permits. Those who are not compliant must be firmly sanctioned, as proof that this country is sovereign,” he said.
Meanwhile, Perkumpulan PADI Indonesia Kaltim sees the urgency of a moratorium from the perspective of the impacts of mining on biodiversity and Indigenous peoples. Deforestation and mining-induced forest degradation have led to biodiversity loss. According to PADI, East Kalimantan holds 38 percent of the national coal reserves, with mining concessions covering 1.5 million hectares. And 29 percent of these concessions are located in forest ecosystems—including 55,561 hectares of primary forest.
PADI outlines the impacts of mining on Indigenous peoples: the loss of sources of livelihood such as agriculture and hunting, loss of clean water, increased conflict between wildlife and humans due to habitat disturbance, criminalization and intimidation of Indigenous peoples who attempt to defend their rights, land grabbing of customary territories, and loss of cultural identity.
“Because of the damage caused by poor management of natural resources, Indigenous people’s living space is increasingly destroyed, and they are constantly criminalized when defending their territories, not to mention the loss of biodiversity,” said Among, Coordinator of Perkumpulan PADI Indonesia Kaltim.
Previously, the urgency of a moratorium was also conveyed by civil society organizations across Sumatra, Java, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, North Maluku, and Papua, which are part of the PWYP Indonesia working group. The various perspectives presented, grounded in the ecological crises caused by mining in these regions, underscore the importance of a moratorium on mining.
“This moratorium is a necessity in the governance of the mining sector today. The pace of environmental recovery is not comparable to the government’s massive issuance of permits. This is accompanied by weak oversight and law enforcement in this sector. What results is ecological damage or destruction, which of course harms communities,” said Ariyansah NK, Researcher at PWYP Indonesia.