WARTA PONTIANAK – The strong call for a moratorium on mining permits has resurfaced, this time emerging from Kalimantan—Indonesia’s powerhouse of extractive natural resources.
Despite mining activities such as oil and gas, coal, and bauxite being major contributors to state revenue, the massive scale of extraction in Kalimantan has now triggered an ecological crisis and socio-economic impacts that harm local communities.
This growing urgency was highlighted during a media discussion titled “The Urgency of a Mining Permit Moratorium: Improving Mineral and Coal Mining Governance and Curbing Illegal Mining in Kalimantan”, held in hybrid format by civil society organizations under the *Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia Regional Kalimantan Coalition in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on 28 November 2025.
Organizations like Gemawan of West Kalimantan (Kalbar) emphasized the inequitable distribution of mining benefits.
Arniyanti, Head of Gemawan Kalbar’s Training and Learning Centre (TLC), stated that profits from mining are enjoyed only by a handful of corporations. At the same time, local and Indigenous communities bear the brunt of widespread ecological destruction.
“The ecological crisis currently unfolding in West Kalimantan demands that the government impose a moratorium on mining permits. At the very least, a moratorium would create a space for evaluation so that future resource extraction can truly benefit local communities while safeguarding ecological sustainability,” Arniyanti stressed.
WALHI Kalbar underscored the urgency of a moratorium to protect community-managed territories.
Andre Illu, Head of WALHI Kalbar’s Community Governance Division, criticized the government for being more focused on issuing new permits than on protecting the rights of Indigenous communities, which have long had the capacity to manage natural resources sustainably.
According to Andre, the government has failed to establish a fair and just spatial planning framework and often acts merely as a guardian of investment interests.
“A moratorium won’t solve all mining problems. But at the very least, it provides space to reorganize the sector for the better, while giving communities a chance to be protected,” he added.
In East Kalimantan (Kaltim), Pokja 30 highlighted two critical issues: poor implementation of mine reclamation and limited transparency of public information.
Buyung Marajo, Coordinator of Pokja 30, revealed that weak oversight has resulted in many companies abandoning mining pits without reclamation—pits that have claimed multiple lives, including children.
Buyung also criticized policy directions that prioritize investment to boost regional and national revenues, while in mining-affected areas, community welfare remains an illusion. Public access to mining information, he said, is still restricted and slow-moving.
“Enough with issuing more permits—it’s time to impose a moratorium on mining licenses. Those who are non-compliant must be strictly sanctioned as proof that this country is sovereign,” he asserted.
Biodiversity loss and its impact on Indigenous peoples were raised by Perkumpulan PADI Indonesia in East Kalimantan.
The PADI Indonesia Kaltim Coordinator explained that deforestation and mining-related forest degradation have resulted in significant biodiversity loss.
He noted that East Kalimantan, which holds 38 percent of Indonesia’s coal reserves, has mining concessions covering 1.5 million hectares—29 percent of which are located in primary forest ecosystems.
Ariyansah NK, researcher at PWYP Indonesia, emphasized that a mining permit moratorium is an urgent necessity in today’s mining governance landscape.
“The pace of environmental recovery cannot keep up with the massive number of permits being issued by the government. This is compounded by weak oversight and law enforcement in the sector. The result is ecological degradation—sometimes even destruction—which undoubtedly harms communities,” Ariyansah concluded, closing a discussion enriched by perspectives from civil society organizations across other Indonesian islands as well.
Source: Warta Pontianak