The local government and the parliament of East Kalimantan has enacted the Spatial Plan through the enactment of Local Regulation no 1/2016 on Spatial Plan of East Kalimantan during 2016-2036. The civil society coalition in East Kalimantan consists of Pokja 30, Jatam Kaltim, Walhi, Aman Kaltim, dan Prakarsa Borneo, assessed that this spatial plan has flawed process, substance, and material. This was delivered in the press conference, entitled “The Judicial Review of Spatial Planing in East Kalimantan: Restore the Community Living Space,” which took place in Samarinda last (28/2).
Coordinator of JATAM Kaltim, Pradarma Rupang, said that the draft of local regulation concerning the spatial plan is more facilitate big scale of mining and plantation industry. For example, article 4 paragraph 2 (d), which stated that “limit the potency of new exploration area and optimize the existing. The clause ‘limit’ meaning that it’s possible to develop new exploration area with certain limitation. This is a setback of Governor regulation no 17/2015 and the clause ‘limit’ shall be changed with ‘stop the new exploration’ because of the enactment of mining permit moratorium for the next two years.
The coalition sees that this spatial plan is just merely a trick, it can be seen from the large amount of coal mining areas amounted 5.2 million hectare and palm plantation amounted 3.5 million hectare. While the allocation for food plantation is very small, amounted 412 thousand hectare.
The protected karst region is also only allocated for 307 thousand hectare or equivalent with 8.43% of the total karst area in East Kalimantan. Whereas, the data from Ecoregional Development Control Center of Kalimantan, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the karst area in the East Kalimantan Province reached 3,642,860 hectare. “This is a threat for Karst area in East Kalimantan, and importantly for the source of water and living space!” asserted Buyung Marajo, activist from Pokja 30. The civil society coalition has registered for the judicial review of the regional regulation of spatial plan to the Supreme Court. [ASR]