- The enforcement arm of Indonesia’s environment ministry in September arrested a South Korean national for allegedly running an illegal sand-mining operation in a protected forest on the west coast of Sulawesi Island.
- Investigators are reviewing the suspect’s network in collaboration with a state agency that reviews financial transactions, but it’s not yet unclear whether the sand was sold locally or mined for export.
- In May this year, civil society groups criticized a policy by President Joko Widodo to reverse a two-decade ban on the export of sand dredged from the beaches of the world’s largest archipelagic country.
MAKASSAR, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities have arrested a 72-year-old South Korean national for allegedly running a sand quarrying operation in a protected forest area in West Sulawesi province. The incident marks a rare instance of a foreign citizen charged with environmental crimes in the world’s largest archipelagic country.
The operation involved multiple agencies, including the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, police, and military officers in the semi-remote village of Lariang in Pasangkayu district, located on the coast around 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the nearest major city, Palu.
Arresting officers seized four excavators, a wheel loader, and three dump trucks used to transport sand.
Investigators said they believe the South Korean man, identified by police only by his initials, Y.K.Y., wasn’t just the investor behind the sand extraction, but also managed operations on the ground.
Aswin Bangun, head of the environment ministry’s law enforcement division in the Sulawesi region, said the case came to light with a public report complaining of illegal sand mining activities in the protected forest area.
Televised news showed the 72-year-old in an orange detainee’s vest being led through a press pack accompanied by Rasio Ridho Sani, the head of the environment ministry’s enforcement division, known as Gakkum.
Gakkum has extensive powers and has arrested foreign nationals in the past for wildlife crimes. However, it’s rare for the division to detain foreigners accused of small-scale logging and mining, which are typically crimes perpetrated by local elites or individuals with low incomes and few opportunities.
In recent years Gakkum investigators have sent more than 1,000 cases to criminal court.
Mustam Arif, head of the Association of Environmental Advocacy Journalists (JURnal) Celebes, said the fact that a foreign national was allowed to operate illegally here to begin with should raise questions about the authorities’ oversight.
“How does a foreign citizen dare to just carry out illegal mining by freely bringing heavy equipment into a location without permission in a protected forest?” Mustaf told Mongabay Indonesia.
“This isn’t the colonial era. Where was the local government, especially the institutions and security forces that have the authority to supervise?”
Harbinger of dune
Sand mining has emerged as an unlikely environmental controversy in the twilight of President Joko Widodo’s 10-year administration, which ends in October after Jokowi, as the president is better known, reaches his two-term limit.
Indonesia banned sea sand exports in 2003, while still permitting dredging for domestic use. The government under then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reinforced the policy in 2007 to curb illegal exports, primarily to Singapore, where Indonesian sand has been used to create reclaimed islands.
However, last year Jokowi lifted the two-decade order against exporting sand from the archipelago’s beaches, provided that local extractors ensured domestic supplies for reclamation projects and other infrastructure.
Local civil society advocates worry the supply-side reform will stimulate a sector that can prove highly destructive to marine and riverine economies.
Susan Herawati, general secretary of the Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA), a civil society organization, said at the time that the policy shift threatened coastal ecosystems in a country where at least 2.5 million people work as fishers.
Anecdotal testimony indicates sand mining is practiced by countless communities across Indonesia, and can create local jobs. However, recent cases show that sand mining at greater scale is vulnerable to corruption, particularly at the district level of government.
Mongabay reported last December on a local corruption case on the island of Lombok, a major tourism destination, where prosecutors have charged eight suspects, including the former head of the province’s energy and mining department, as well as two officials at the island’s eastern port.
“The activity will also accelerate the sinking of small islands around the mined area because it changes the contours of the seabed, which affect the pattern of ocean currents and waves,” Afdillah, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia, said after the Lombok story broke.
In 2019, an environmental activist in Lombok who survived an arson attack on his home by unknown assailants said he believed it was his campaigning against sand mining that prompted the attack.
Sand is the world’s most in-demand commodity after water, with global production of around 50 billion metric tons per year.
However, Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelagic country, produces little sand, which is required in the production of cement and glass and other foundational materials enabling the country’s rapid urbanization.
Sand banks
Environmental advocates in Indonesia say they’re concerned that the sudden creation of an export market will place strain on coastal ecosystems already under pressure from fast-depleting fishing grounds.
“All these areas are very important to prevent erosion and abrasion, habitat for various animals, nursery grown for shrimp, crabs, and fish, and also control pollution from land entering the waters,” Gakkum’s Rasio said.
JURnal Celebes’s Mustam Arif called for government agencies to improve coordination to prevent actors from beginning dredging work, rather than responding to public complaints after damage has been done.
“I agree with Gakkum’s statement that this problem continues to occur because of weak synergy in supervision,” Mustam said. “We hope that synergy between law enforcement institutions occurs with regard to supervision in the field, not just retrospectively during arrests like this.”
Rasio said investigators would pursue a money-laundering investigation against the South Korean suspect in cooperation with the country’s Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK). Gakkum officers will also review alleged violations of Indonesia’s 2009 environment law, he said.
“I have ordered investigators to continue developing the disclosure of possible involvement of other parties, including other perpetrators involved,” Rasio said. “We are committed to uncovering the entire criminal network of suspect Y.K.Y., including tracing the flow of funds from this illegal mining crime through coordination with the PPATK.”
Banner image: Suspect YKY, a South Korean national, is perp-walked in an orange vest in Sulawesi. Image courtesy of Gakkum.
This story was reported by Mongabay’s Indonesia team and first published here on our Indonesian site on Sept. 7, 2024.
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