Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM)
Support network against large-scale mining projects
Jatam is a network of local organisations in Indonesia that oppose large-scale mining projects. Experience shows that such projects cause a lot of environmental damage, create few local jobs and cause a lot of inconvenience to the local population.
Cooperation with these critical residents is not self-evident: both companies and the government try to intimidate the latter or portray their leaders as criminals. With the necessary dose of courage, Jatam offers the local population education, access to the right political contacts, legal assistance, etc.
And the invisible costs?
The extractive sector, this is the collective term for the extraction and processing of oil, gas and minerals, is good for more than 10% of the GNP, with the most important ores: copper, nickel, tin, iron and bauxite. The government sees mining as a motor for development, but in practice this turns out to be different: open mining causes deforestation and erosion. This causes flooding, it disrupts the local economy, food becomes scarcer, more expensive and of lower quality. The recent development of nickel mining and processing is going so fast that people fear that within 5 years the supply of high-quality nickel ores will be exhausted.
Furthermore, many companies do not respect the law, there are many illegal mines and after the ores or minerals are exhausted, they leave behind a gigantic crater, making it impossible to return to agriculture. However, a clean-up is a condition for obtaining a permit. Jatam has documented more than 3.000 illegal mining pits, and 143 cases of drowning, mostly young children in these abandoned pits.
Mining is power and money
There are more problems. It is no secret that the sector has close ties with some powerful politicians and (ex-)military personnel. A few years ago, the anti-corruption commission KPK started an audit of the mining sector, based on a report by Jatam. Their findings were appalling. More than half of the companies were operating illegally, many do not even have a VAT number, which allows them to avoid paying taxes. After this screening, the companies were given a second chance, but in the end, hundreds of permits were cancelled.
But even with the legal permits there are often still difficulties. Despite a regulation that does not allow mining on islands smaller than 2000 km², the inhabitants have to defend their island, Sangihe, against the arrival of the Canadian mining company PT Tambang Mas Sangihe (TMS). Jatam went to court with the inhabitants and was proven right: the company's permit was revoked. Nevertheless, the company persistently tries to bring heavy equipment ashore, but, so far in vain, the inhabitants keep setting up a blockade.
