As an archipelago, Bangka Belitung Province is facing crisis in one of its natural resources being exploited to fulfill global lead supply to ten countries including France, Germany, the United States of America, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Japan and Singapore, without calculating the adverse impact on the environment, let alone the safety of the people in the area. With total area of 1.6 million hectares of Bangka Belitung Islands, ¾ of the area is included in big-scaled and unconventional Mining Business License (IUP). Living space and people’s governance space are surrounded by lead industry in addition to many other licenses such as HGU forest industry. This was stated during the media briefing at Bakoel Koffie, 25 September 2017 in Jakarta. The lead mining activity in the land and sea has caused several significant impacts. The lead mining on the land has caused deforestation and degradation of the forest. Mining in the sea has caused the damage of coastal and marine waters ecosystems, and at the end such activities will affect around 45 thousands traditional fishermen who rely on coastal and sea. This puts Bangka Belitung Province in the top position with critically damaged land up to 1,053,253.19 hectares or 62% of land area of Bangka Belitung. Lead mining activity is not only destroying the environment, but also is dangerous for the community. The economy of the community, in particular the fishermen, is threatened by how more massively lead mining operates. The lead mining is always being mentioned as the sector that gives prosperity an economy growth nationally or regionally; however, the fact is not the same: the state has to suffer a big loss caused by the bad governance. It is confirmed with the finding of Korsup Minerba KPK that found there are 601 IUP that haven’t got any CnC (Clear and Clean) or around 55% of the total 1085 IUP. This seems becoming the source of corruption in lead mining sector. From 2004-2014, ICW recorded that because of this lead mining the state suffered loss of 68 Trillion from tax, reclamation cost, royalty, export tax and non-tax receipt. For three years (2015-2017) DBH (Revenue Sharing) of Coal and Mineral Mining for Bangka Belitung province is Rp. 383.87 Billion with the annual average of Rp. 127.95 Billion, in which the fixed contribution revenue is Rp. 117.85 Billion (31%) or the annual average of Rp. 39.23 Billion. For royalty fee is Rp. 266.02 Billion (69%) or the annual average of Rp. 88.67 Billion. This is not included the damage suffered by the state and community caused by the ecological disaster such as flood and pollution, also threat for the next generation of Bangka Belitung, considering there are many children and women working in the lead mining with the risk of being exposed to pollution every single day. Based on such facts, civil society organizations having concern on environment, the fair and sustainable natural resource management, and good governance, consider that the condition of environmental crisis and the loss of economy sources for the people and nation is in the state needed to be rescued by structural and systematic efforts carried out by the state, as the mandate holder of the Constitution. Therefore, we urge:
- President, Joko Widodo, to immediately issue moratorium policy on lead industry in Bangka Belitung aiming to protect the safety of the people and to assure the environmental protection and restoration, in the form of Presidential Regulation. This moratorium policy is considered as a measure to stop lead mining activity and to shift to another economy sources that are fair and sustainable such as agriculture and fisheries sectors
- The issued moratorium policy shall be based on achievement with clear indicators along with the following measures:
- Conducting environmental audit
- Conducting permit review
- Enforcing the law
- Having environmental restoration, and assuring that the mined holes are being reclaimed as one of the obligations of the company
Through this press release, we also encourage the public to support the fight in saving the environment and the people of Bangka Belitung Islands by urging the President to issue such moratorium policy, and to push any lead electronic industry to hold liability for their business that damaging the environment, taking away living space and people’s governance space such as the farmers and fishermen, as well as violating the human rights. WALHI National – WALHI Kepulauan Bangka Belitung JATAM – PWYP ICEL – ICW – IBC – KIARA
