ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – Professor at the Faculty of Forestry, IPB, Prof. Bambang Hero Saharjo revealed that the total losses due to environmental damage caused by alleged corruption in the trading system of tin commodities in the PT Timah Tbk mining business permit (IUP) area from 2015 to 2022 reached IDR 271.06 trillion.
Bambang in a press conference at the Attorney General’s Office, Jakarta, Monday, said that the loss value of IDR 271.06 trillion was a calculation of environmental losses due to tin mining in forest areas and outside forest areas.
“If all forest areas and non-forest areas are combined, the total loss due to damage which must also be borne by the state is IDR 271.06 trillion,” said Bambang.
The forestry forensic expert explained that in calculating ecological or environmental losses, his party carried out verification in the field and observations with satellite imagery from 2015 to 2022.
Based on verification and observation of satellite imagery, he obtained evidence that could shed light on a criminal act that had caused environmental damage.
Apart from that, tin mining activities are not only carried out outside forest areas, but also within forest areas.
“We reconstructed using satellites in 2015, the red areas are IUP (mining business permits) and non-IUP areas. We tracked 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 to 2022, we can see that the red color is getting bigger, this is an example just,” he said.
Of the seven districts in Bangka Belitung Province, there are IUPs on land covering an area of 349,653,574 hectares. Meanwhile, data on the area of mine excavations in the seven districts totals 170,363,064 hectares.
East Belitung Regency has quite a large mining area, reaching 43,175,372 hectares, while the IUP is only 37,535,452 hectares. Bambang revealed that of the total 170,363,064 hectares of mine excavation area in seven districts in Bangka Belitung Province, around 75,345,751 hectares are inside forest areas and 95,017,313 hectares are outside forest areas.
Of the 75,345,751 hectares of excavated area in forest areas, 13,875,295 hectares are in protected forests, 59,847,252 hectares are in permanent production forests, 77,830 hectares are in convertible production forests, and 1,238,917 hectares are in grand forest parks.
“There is even a national park, which covers an area of 306,456 hectares,” he added. Then, of the 170,363,064 hectares of mine excavation area, it turns out that only 88,900,462 hectares have a mining IUP, while 81,462,602 hectares do not have an IUP. Bambang also revealed that the total area of land and sea mining IUPs reached 915,854.625 hectares, consisting of 349,653.574 hectares of land mining IUPs and 566,201.08 hectares of sea mining IUPs. The area of mining IUPs on land is 349,653,574 hectares, some are in forest areas, namely 123,012,010 hectares,” said Bambang.
Furthermore, from the results of the verification, the party calculated the ecological losses incurred based on the Minister of Environment Regulation Number 7 of 2014 concerning Environmental Losses Due to Environmental Pollution or Damage. By dividing environmental losses in forest areas and outside forest areas. The total environmental losses due to tin mining in forest areas, namely environmental (ecological) loss costs IDR 157.83 trillion, environmental economic loss costs IDR 60.27 billion and environmental restoration costs IDR 5.26 billion for a total of IDR 223.36 trillion.
Meanwhile, environmental losses due to tin mining outside forest areas (APL), namely environmental loss costs of IDR 25.87 trillion, environmental economic loss costs of IDR 15.2 trillion, and environmental restoration costs of IDR 6.62 billion, for a total of IDR 47.70 trillion.
“If you combine all forest areas and outside forest areas, the total loss due to damage which must also be borne by the state is IDR 271.06 trillion,” said Bambang.
Losses added
Director of Investigations at the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes at the Attorney General’s Office, Kuntadi, said that the results of the ecological calculations presented by Prof. Bambang Hero will be added to the state financial losses incurred in the case currently being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office.
“Currently the calculation of state financial losses is still in process, we will convey the results later,” said Kuntadi.
Kutandi added to the presentation delivered by Prof. Bambang showed that most of the land added by the perpetrators and suspects was in forest areas and ex-mining areas which should have been restored (reclamation), but this was not done.
“It was not restored at all and was simply abandoned, leaving behind large holes and swamps that are unhealthy for the community environment,” said Kuntadi.
In this case, the attorney general’s office has named 10 suspects in the crime of corruption and one suspect in the case of obstruction of investigation. The ten suspects, namely RL, as General Manager (GM) of PT TIN, TN alias AN and suspect AA. Then, SG alias AW and MBG, both of whom are mining entrepreneurs in Pangkalpinang City, Bangka Belitung Islands Province.
Furthermore, HT alias AS as the Main Director of CV VIP (the company owned by the suspect TN alias AN), suspect BY as the Former Commissioner of CV VIP and RI as the Main Director of PT SBS. Investigators also named two suspects from PT Timah Tbk, namely MRPT alias RZ as Main Director of PT Timah Tbk for the period 2016 to 2021 and EE alias EML as Finance Director of PT Timah Tbk for the period 2017 to 2018.
One person was named as a suspect in obstructing the investigation into the corruption case regarding tin commodity trade in the PT Timah Tbk Mining Business License (IUP) area for the period 2015 to 2022, with the initials TT. (ANT)
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