PAt the end of 2016 the Indonesian Article 33 Association held a Regional Government Forum and Legislative Forum in Balikpapan (14/12). Article 33 Indonesia is committed to supporting strengthening the capacity and synchronization of evidence-based central government policies towards regional governments, by regularly holding Policy Maker Forums, both executive and legislative for regions rich in natural resources.
The forum held in Balikpapan aims to be a forum for discussion regarding policies between the Central Government, Regional Government and civil society regarding the Revision of Law Number 4 of 2009 concerning Mineral and Coal Mining and the new paradigm for managing natural resources after the enactment of Law Number 23 of 2014 concerning Government Areas that attract mining and forestry matters from Regency/City to the Center and Province.
The first session of this forum (14/12) presented speakers from various parties, including from the Fiscal Policy Agency of the Ministry of Finance, P3Ekoregion Kalimantan KLHK, and Dr. Bernaulus Saragih, Lecturer at the Faculty of Forestry, Mulawarman University.
In this forum, the main issue discussed was the problem of Kalimantan with its main support for the extractive industry economy such as oil, gas, coal mineral mining and forestry. An economic support that has a heavy environmental impact and to date there has been no mitigation effort from the provincial or regional governments. Pak Joko Tri BKF Ministry of Finance highlighted that the budget allocation in East Kalimantan which is considered by the Regional Government to be small and inadequate, on the other hand, has a SILPA APBD above IDR 1 trillion, indicating that expenditure management is not yet optimal.
Bernaulus Saragih from Unmul emphasized that "environmental damage caused by extractive industries should be included in the calculation of the distribution of Profit Sharing Funds, in other words called "polluters pay principles”. Apart from increasing income, this scheme must also be marked (earmarking) on the shopping side. This opinion was also expressed by Mr. Joko, so that income from mining should be allocated primarily to improve environmental quality.
In terms of carrying capacity and carrying capacity, currently P3Ekoregion Kalimantan is in the final stages of compiling a map of the carrying capacity and carrying capacity of the island of Kalimantan. It is hoped that in the future this map will become the basis for development of cities and districts in Kalimantan so that development can pay attention to environmental aspects.
Also present at this event was the Executive Director of Article 33 Indonesia, Santoso. Santoso said that regional governments, which are the main supporter of the extractive industry economy, must immediately think of a solution that does not only depend on natural resource revenue sharing funds in order to avoid the phenomenon of the curse of natural resources.
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