Coal Mining Companies Get Help Rehabilitating Their Sites

Over 1,200 mining companies operate in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province. Though rehabilitation of these sites is their legal responsibility, extensive environmental degradation remains at both the site and downstream.

Unfortunately, government regulators responsible for providing the technical expertise to work with highly degraded and sometimes toxic soils and evaluate mine site rehabilitation often don’t have knowledge and expertise to implement this process.

That’s why the Bayan Resources Group, one of the biggest international mining operators in Indonesia, hired ELTI alumnus Banjar Yulianto as an advisor to the company’s seven subsidiaries that are located in South and East Kalimantan.

ELTI’s mission is in line with the work that I do in rehabilitating mined land across Indonesia, much of which is toxic. I think it is important to have ELTI’s support in this field because there has been very little attention on this issue. We need to create more champions on the ground like Mr. Yulianto, who can provide the rehabilitation efforts with adequate technical capacity.

Dr. Yadi Setiadi

Having worked on the rehabilitation of industrially degraded land as the head of the Center for Forestry Development Control (CFDC) in Sumatra, Banjar knew that a lack of technical capacity was one of the primary constraints for successful rehabilitation. He also knew the massive scale of the problem.

Just before retiring from the CFDC, Banjar participated in ELTI’s training course on Coal Mine Site Rehabilitation for Practitioners. The course greatly improved his capacity to provide technical advice on reclamation and restoration.

According to Dr. Yadi Setiadi, one of the trainers during the ELTI course who also works widely as a consultant to the mining industry, Banjar has been very forceful in fostering progressive rehabilitation practices at the company’s mining sites, which total 8,500 hectares. He also has made progress addressing the rehabilitation of 17,000 hectares of watershed areas.

Because of the example set by Banjar, ELTI is now working with in-country partners from the Bogor Agricultural University and the Research Institute of Natural Resources Conservation Technology (Balitek-KSDA) to plan a training course designed specifically for policy advisors from other companies throughout Indonesia.