location: South Sulawesi

location: South Sulawesi

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Indonesian islanders draw line in sand as Dubai-style reclamation nears
- Residents of the island of Lae-Lae off the Makassar seafront in eastern Indonesia are stepping up their opposition to a major reclamation project conceived in 2009.
- The community has staged seven demonstrations this year to press their opposition to the ongoing development, which they warn will decimate their near-shore fisheries.
- The provincial government has previously said the island’s population will not be required to move, and that Lae-Lae will derive economic benefits from the development.

FOIA lawsuit suggests Indonesian nickel miners lack environmental licenses
- A freedom-of-information ruling in Indonesia has indicated that two nickel miners suspected of polluting a river on the island of Sulawesi may not have all the required permits.
- The ruling, in a case filed by environmental journalists, ordered authorities in East Luwu district to publish the licensing documents for the two companies, but the authorities said some of the papers were still being processed.
- A lawyer for the environmental journalists points out that the companies should have already secured the licenses prior to operating, and that this revelation strongly points to them not having the licenses.
- The Indonesian government is pushing a massive expansion of the nickel mining and processing industries to feed the demand for electric vehicle batteries, but nickel mining in the country has long been associated with pollution and community conflicts.

From bombs to seasonal closure, Indonesian fishers move toward sustainability
- Kahu-Kahu village on Sulawesi’s Selayar Island is implementing its first season- and location-based fishery closure.
- The three-month closure of a 6-hectare (15-acre) stretch of coastal water is intended to replenish local octopus populations by reducing fishing pressure.
- Local fishers will install and plant artificial reefs in the area during the closure.

Fishers in Flores Sea opt to limit harvest of overexploited sea cucumbers
- Fishers on Indonesia’s Sapuka island have decided to regulate their sea cucumber harvests.
- Since the 1960s, sea cucumber has been an important commodity for the island, but heavy harvest pressure has pushed the fishery to overexploited status.
- Sea cucumbers play a crucial role in the marine ecosystem by providing food to other species and adding nutrients and pH balance in waters around coral reefs and other shallow-water ecosystems.

Sulawesi nickel plant coats nearby homes in toxic dust
- The Bantaeng Industrial Estate is a 3,000-hectare ore processing zone in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province.
- President Joko Widodo has banned exports of raw mineral ores to compel companies to construct smelters to produce value-added nickel.
- But South Sulawesi communities living alongside the smelters report health impacts from pollution generated on site. Relocation plans have yet to be enacted.

Faced with grouper, snapper decline, Indonesia adopts harvest strategy
- Indonesia is adopting a harvest strategy for grouper and snapper in the east of the country, where catch volume and average fish landed are down.
- The areas targeted are a major global supplier of the fish, given that Indonesia is responsible for 45% of global snapper and grouper sales.
- The new regulations on gear and total boats targets restoration of fish stocks for seven species.

An Indonesian rock star shines his light on mangroves, urban farming and more
- Andi Fadly Arifuddin is known to millions of Indonesians as Fadly, the vocalist of alt-rock band Padi, which formed in 1996 and relaunched as Padi Reborn in 2018.
- While many musicians sing of the need to protect the environment, Fadly walks the talk through sustainable agriculture education, urban farming and mangrove conservation.
- In his home district of Sinjai in South Sulawesi province, he’s campaigning to create a mangrove hub in collaboration with local youth and government.

Scientists develop AI that can listen to the pulse of a reef being restored
- Scientists have developed a machine-learning algorithm that can distinguish healthy coral reefs from less healthy ones by the soundscape in the ecosystem.
- Previous studies had established that the sounds of life in a successfully recovered reef are similar to those from a healthy reef, but parsing all the acoustic data was slow and labor-intensive.
- The new algorithm has been hailed as “an important milestone” for efficiently processing acoustic data to answer the basic question of how to determine the progress of a reef restoration program.
- Researchers say follow-up work is still needed, including to check whether the algorithm, tested in the Pacific Coral Triangle, also works in reefs in other parts of the world.

Iwan Dento, ‘hero’ of South Sulawesi’s karst mountains
- For more than a decade, environmental activist Iwan Dento has opposed the mining of the limestone karst formations in his homeland of Maros, Indonesia.
- Until 2013, the karst mountain area of Rammang-rammang was mined for marble and limestone, but local resistance led to protective regulations and the establishment of an ecotourism area.
- For his dedication to defending the karst and establishing ecotourism, Iwan Dento has been nominated for several top honors for environmental preservation by both the government and the private sector, and is seen as the “hero” of Rammang-rammang.

New shrews just dropped: Sulawesi yields up 14 freshly described species
- A new study has described 14 new species of shrew endemic to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
- The shrews, all from the genus Crocidura, were identified from 1,368 specimens collected from 2010-2018 on 12 mountains and in two lowland areas across Sulawesi.
- This gives the island a much richer diversity of Crocidura shrew life than others in the Indonesian archipelago, which the researchers attribute to the varied landscape.
- They add it’s likely that even more species have yet to be described, and say there needs to be more research into Sulawesi’s biodiversity.

For Indonesian farmers used to ‘instant’ results, going organic is a tough sell
- Encouraging greater take-up of composting and other natural farming techniques in South Sulawesi province is challenging due to a long-standing reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
- But farmers are increasingly looking to new methods owing to the scarcity and rising cost of agrochemical products.
- The South Sulawesi parliament is drafting new rules to nurture composting in the province’s agricultural production.
- Fieldworkers say farmers need government support as they adopt alternative methods.

Indonesian farmers refuse to budge for train line through karst landscape
- Farmers in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province have rejected government offers to buy their land for a railway project, saying they depend on it for their livelihood.
- The residents of Salenrang village say protecting their lands and farms will be more beneficial than selling them for the railway line, which the government is touting as a boost for the economy.
- The farmers also say the government is shortchanging them with its offers, arguing that the market rate for the land is more than five times higher.
- The land conflict in Salenrang village is one of hundreds that have popped up across Sulawesi as the government splurges on infrastructure projects.

Illegal loggers use pandemic as cover to ramp up activity in Sulawesi
- Illegal logging on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island has intensified by more than two-thirds during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a local NGO.
- It attributes this increase to monitoring by law enforcers having to be scaled back as part of wider mobility restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic.
- At the same time, the legal logging industry has taken a hit due to sluggish demand and being undercut by the illegal trade.
- Police have charged a senior local politician with involvement in illegal logging.

Indonesian governor’s arrest in road project points to more tainted contracts
- Indonesian anti-graft investigators last week arrested Nurdin Abdullah, the governor of South Sulawesi province, for alleged corruption in an upcoming road project in the province.
- They have charged him with taking at least 2 billion rupiah ($140,000) in bribes to grant the contract to a local developer, and another 3.4 billion rupiah ($238,000) from other companies awarded other contracts.
- Environmental activists are calling on the agency to expand the investigation to include other infrastructure projects approved by Nurdin.
- Corruption in infrastructure projects is common in Indonesia, with local leaders like governors and district chiefs channeling the money back to their parties or using it to fund their re-election campaigns.

Agribusiness giants ADM, Bunge trading in ‘conflict’ palm oil, report says
- A report by Global Witness has found that more than 100 Indonesian palm oil mills supplying agribusiness giants ADM and Bunge have been accused of land and human rights violations and environmental destruction.
- Global Witness found that neither company is addressing the majority of these allegations through their formal grievance processes, and effectively passing on this “conflict” palm oil to major consumer brands such as Nestlé, Unilever and PepsiCo.
- ADM and Bunge have denied any failure to police their suppliers, but have also pledged to look into the allegations.

In Indonesia’s coastal villages, the plastic crisis is both homegrown and invasive
- Proper management of plastic waste is lacking in Indonesia’s coastal communities, where the use of plastics is outpacing mitigation efforts, according to a newly published study.
- The paper found that nearly 6,700 households in the Selayar and Wakatobi island chains had relatively low knowledge about plastic and how to manage it properly, while their use of it, particularly, single-use plastic packaging, was growing.
- The researchers have called for producers to take greater responsibility for managing the waste generated by their products, and for a transition to a circular economy.
- Indonesia is the second-biggest contributor of the plastic waste in the world’s oceans, behind only China.

Indonesian fishers opposed to dredging project hit by ‘criminalization’ bid
- Police have arrested four fishermen and charged them with defacing the Indonesian currency, following their protests against dredging for a new port in Makassar, eastern Indonesia.
- Environmental activists and supporters of the fishing community say the charge, for which the fishermen could face up to five years in prison, is a spurious one meant to silence opposition to the $6.2 billion project.
- The fishing community says the dredging activity has disrupted their traditional fishing areas, leading to catches dropping by up to two-thirds since dredging began in February this year.
- The four fishermen arrested on Aug. 14 were charged after one of them, out of protest, tore a money-filled envelope given to them by the dredging company.

‘We have to be in it together’: Remembering indigenous rights heroine Den Upa Rombelayuk (commentary)
- This summer, Den Upa Rombelayuk, a Torajan woman who helped found AMAN, Indonesia’s main advocacy group for indigenous rights, passed away.
- To honor her legacy, I would like to share her thoughts from our conversation back in 2012.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Not in my backyard: Indonesian official fights corrupt palm concession
- A district chief in Indonesia is seeking to overturn a decision by the environment ministry to approve a request that would allow a palm oil company to clear forest for plantation in Buol district, on the island of Sulawesi.
- The case has been controversial since the start, with the company initially being awarded the concession after bribing the previous district chief for the permit.
- The recent approval also goes against a moratorium issued last year on the issuance of permits for new plantations.
- However, the environment minister exploited loopholes in a pair of regulations to push through the approval, despite the opposition of the Buol administration and residents.

In Indonesia, a company intimidates, evicts and plants oil palm without permits
- A state-owned plantation company, PTPN XIV, is evicting farmers to make room for an oil palm estate on the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
- In 1973, the company got a permit to raise cattle and farm tapioca on the now-disputed land, but it expired in 2003. After a long hiatus, the company has returned to claim the land. It says the government has promised to give it permits in the future, but has started operations anyway even as local communities resist.
- The case is one of thousands of land disputes simmering across Indonesia, as President Joko Widodo attempts to carry out an ambitious land reform program.
- The president has also ordered a freeze on the issuance of new oil palm plantation permits, but the level of enforcement remains to be seen.

An island mapped for mines gets a reprieve after violent protests
- Residents of Wawonii have staged huge protests demanding the cancellation of mining permits on the island, located in Indonesia’s Southeast Sulawesi province.
- Last week, the deputy governor of Southeast Sulawesi, Lukman Abunawas, said he and Governor Ali Mazi had decided to revoke the permits, promising to do so within 10 days.
- The announcement came after a video surfaced showing police officers beating a student taking part in the protests.

Architects bring bamboo revival to Indonesian village
- Local architects in Tanete, Indonesia, teamed up with the local government to build a new public space made primarily from bamboo.
- Bamboo, long used as a construction material, is abundant in the area.
- “Bamboo roots save a lot of water,” says Walid, who researches bamboo biomass in Indonesia. “This is what makes bamboo a very good conservation plant.”

Environmental degradation exacerbates Indonesia flooding, landslides
- Days of torrential rains in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province killed scores of people and forced thousands to flee their homes.
- Local authorities and activists have blamed the degraded condition of the region’s rivers and watershed for amplifying the scale of the disaster.
- Upstream mining and forest clearing for farms are believed to have severely silted up the region’s rivers, rendering them prone to spilling over during heavy rains.

Conservation officers forced online in fight against bird trafficking
- Law enforcers in the Indonesian port city of Makassar are trying to keep up with wildlife traffickers who are increasingly using the internet to connect with buyers.
- Officers have tried infiltrating online networks of traders and considered working with the police’s cybercrimes unit to trace phone numbers.
- The government conservation agency has also started hosting a weekly radio program to spread awareness about the laws around protected plants and animals.

Indonesian police bust Chinese nationals with 200 kg of turtle shells
- Police in eastern Indonesia have arrested two Chinese men for illegally being in possession of 200 kilos (440 pounds) of turtle shells, which they believe was headed to China.
- All turtle species are protected under Indonesian law, and the possession or trade in their parts is punishable by up to five years in prison and $7,000 in fines. The estimated value of the seized shells was $13,200.
- The bust highlights the continued role of the city of Makassar as the main gateway for traffickers moving wildlife products out of the biodiversity haven of Papua, where the suspects say they obtained the turtle shells.

Sand mining, land reclamation meet fierce resistance in Makassar
- The South Sulawesi government plans a massive land-reclamation project, known as Centre Point Indonesia, that will create five artificial islands off the coast of the provincial capital, Makassar.
- The project is estimated to require around 22 million cubic meters of sand and gravel, which will be mined on- and offshore in nearby districts.
- Local fishing communities have rejected — and attempted to physically prevent — sand mining, which they fear will destroy their livelihoods.
- The project also faces a lawsuit alleging work commenced without required documentation — including a permit from the fisheries ministry and a valid Environmental Impact Assessment.

Indigenous communities resisting dams in Indonesia claim they face repression, rights abuses
- Developers plan to build a hydropower dam in Seko, a remote sub-district in North Luwu, Sulawesi that is home to several indigenous communities.
- Some residents support the project, but many others have resisted since developers arrived in 2014, launching road blockades and protests.
- Thirteen residents have been imprisoned for involvement in an August 2016 demonstration in which protestors dismantled tents used by company workers and took drilling samples.
- Villagers allege people opposed to the dam have been arrested with force, have had to flee their homes, and that even school children have been beaten.

In remote Indonesian villages, indigenous communities fight a hydropower dam
- Seko, in the North Luwu subdistrict of South Sulawesi, is home to Pohoneang, Hoyyane and Amballong indegenous communities.
- Surveys have begun for a planned 480-megawatt hydroelectric dam, part of a broader plan to build 1,154-megawatts of hydropower in the region.The dam has become the center of a bitter fight that has divided families and communities.
- On March 27, a district court sentenced 13 Seko residents to seven months in prison in connection with an August 2016 action against the dam.
- This is the first in a series of two articles on the situation in Seko.

Indonesia’s indigenous wage two-pronged battle for legal recognition
- The Indonesian ethnosphere is one of the planet’s most diverse, with hundreds of distinct indigenous groups and languages spoken across the archipelagic country.
- The constitution recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples, but in seven decades of independence no law has been passed to operationalize them.
- In the wake of a landmark ruling by Indonesia’s highest court, indigenous groups are turning to local governments for recognition, even as they campaign for the passage of a national law.

Indonesia’s antigraft agency strives to rein in the mining sector
- Indonesia’s anticorruption agency has become involved in a number of initiatives to improve governance of natural resources in the archipelago.
- One such effort, focused on the mining sector, involves 12 provinces and has resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of permits.
- This initiative, known as Korsup Minerba, recently produced an assessment of the provinces’ progress in reining in the miners under their watch.

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