Indonesia pledges action against mining violations after catastrophic floods | Environment and climate

Indonesia’s energy minister said his country would revoke mining permits if companies were found to have violated rules on the flood-hit island of Sumatra, as questions grew about the role of deforestation in worsening the deadly disaster.

Floods and landslides caused by the typhoons killed about 1,200 people, left hundreds missing and affected about a million people in West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Aceh provinces, according to government data.

Environment Minister Hanif Faisal Norovik said – on Instagram, today, Thursday – that the disaster resulted from climate change, which led to the intensification of bad weather events and environmental damage, noting the shrinkage of forest cover in the three most affected provinces.

Environmental groups said deforestation linked to mining and illegal logging had exacerbated the disasters, with landslides leaving rubble and mud puddles in place of homes.

Forests act as vital shields against extreme weather conditions, such as storms and floods. They act as buffers and stabilize the soil, preventing its collapse. Trees intercept flowing water, reducing the intensity of its flow and storing some of it.

Data from the Global Forest Watch organization, which is interested in tracking deforestation and forest degradation around the world, indicate that Aceh, North and West Sumatra provinces have lost about 19,600 square kilometers of forest since 2000.

Pictures of tree trunks washed up on the shores of Sumatra after the floods sparked anger among social media users, who attributed this to illegal mining and deforestation.

Environmental degradation

Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told evacuated West Sumatra residents yesterday that he would consider revoking the companies’ mining permits if they were found to have violated the rules.

During his visit to these residents, he stressed, “If it is proven in our assessments that they violated or did not comply, we will carry out our work without any hesitation in accordance with the established rules.”

The environmental organization Jatam said that legal permits to convert forests into extraction areas cover about 54,000 hectares, most of them for mining.

According to David Gafo, founder of the deforestation monitoring organization Nusantara Atlas, between 2001 and 2024, the island of Sumatra lost about 4.4 million hectares of forest (44 thousand square kilometers), which is larger than the area of ​​Switzerland.

Indonesia is a major player in the global mining market, and because of its geographical location on the “Pacific Ring of Fire” and its 1,700 islands, it possesses huge reserves of coal, copper, gold, nickel and cobalt.