Institutional Development for Environmental Hazard Prevention EAROPH REGIONAL SEMINAR Overview

Institutional Development for Environmental Hazard Prevention The Case on Mahakam River, East Kalimantan By: Kemal Taruc * Presented for EAROPH REGIONAL SEMINAR Jogjakarta, Indonesia September 19 – 20, 2005 “RISK MANAGEMENT IN HUMAN SETTLEMENTS” ". .to promote and encourage all parts of society to participate in disaster preparedness planning and in disaster prevention though activities that build a culture of prevention" (Habitat Agenda, 1996) “. .to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs, and reverse the loss of environmental resources.” (the Millennium Development Goals Target 9) Overview Mahakam river is very strategic in East Kalimanatan, the lifeblood of the region, the symbol, the heritage and the identity of East Kalimantan. The river runs for 920 kilometers from the uplands down to the east on the eastern coastline of Makassar Strait. This is a case about challenges faced by the Province to initiate a coordination in the management of Mahakam River in East Kalimantan to answer every year’s record- breaking flood and other environmental hazards related to the river. It is a about efforts and processes to build a local capacity for environmental risk and disaster mitigation at local governments. * Founding Faculty Member, Graduate Program in Real Estate and Urban Development, Tarumanagara University Jakarta; Chairman-elect, Board of Ethics, the Indonesian Association of Planners (IAP); Principal, Ecolink Center for Business and Environment. 21st Century Trust Fellow, UK; Cornell University Hubert Humphrey Fellow. Email address: [email protected] EAROPH 2005 - Kemal Taruc 1 It has tried to develop policies on river basin management in the setting of Indonesia’s bureaucratic polity of natural resource management and the ecological threats resulted from the uncoordinated activities on the river. It also directly shows a local economic dimension of the issue where river is the main transportation and water supply for the local people competing with timber and mining activities of global players. Not only is a complex issue that also involves the protection of endangered species, Pesut, the fresh- water dolphin, but also gives the international dimension of the issues. During the process it had involved and exposed to international donor organizations and multinational companies, namely, USAID, GTZ, Total Indonesie, the Pesut Foundation, ICMA and the State of Oregon, and Oregon State University Extension Service. The author involved as the field facilitator during the process when the case evolved during the work in a short period of 2002-2003 in an early effort to develop an intergovernmental coordination that crosscuts five local governments and the province during the time when local autonomy was in its early stage of implementation. The Issue There are a myriad of issues and environmental problems on the Mahakam River, from the remaining timber-rich upland Kabupatens of Malinau and of West Kutai through two other Kabupatens, Kutai Kartanegara and East Kutai, and the provincial city of Samarinda down to the Makassar Strait on the eastern coastline of Kalimantan. Problems on the Mahakam River affect multiple jurisdictions. The Mahakam River is the lifeblood of the region. The Mahakam River is the transportation route for industry, commerce, and communities, a source of food and drinking water for more than one million people. The uses are threatened as the Mahakam River Basin suffers continued degradation from mining (six coal mines, one gold mine), logging practices on 23 large concessions and numerous 100 Ha community’s small-holding concessions, twelve plywood factories, six plantations, 12,000 households living on the river, domestic and industrial discharges, adverse fishing practices, and fish farming. The problems include downstream impacts of logging practices, siltation, increased seasonal salinity (salt wedge), concentrated runoff from deforested land to the three lakes of the endangered pesut fresh-water dolphin habitat (Danau Semayang, Danau EAROPH 2005 - Kemal Taruc 2 Jempang and Danau Melintang), flooding in the city of Samarinda, salt intrusion causing rust of city water supply pipes, and shallower ship paths to the main river port that serves the region. The river is also subject to more frequent, worsening and severe floods and low water levels (during the last five years), erosion and sedimentation from logging practices, pollution (point and non-point discharges), and invasive plants (water hyacinth). The fresh water dolphin (Orcaella brovirostris / Irrawady dolphin) and its habitat in the Mahakam lakes are threatened by the disruption of the natural river cycle, fishing practices and river transportation. There are conflicting ownerships and use of natural resources between traditional communities and outside private commercial companies as well as between commercial sectors (forestry, mining, plantations, aquaculture, etc.). At the same time, important local and indigenous wisdom has been displaced by the introduction of modern technology and capital in natural resource use and management. There is a lack of law enforcement of Indonesian natural resource industry (forestry, mining, plantations, fish farming, etc.) laws and regulations. Local leadership envisions restoring and sustaining the health of the river basin system. There is growing awareness that East Kalimantan’s future is linked to the health of the river. There has been a strong desire by the Province and local governments for an integrated and holistic approach to river basin management not only for a better use of the river, but also to mitigate potential environmental hazard due to lack of proper management. Initial cooperation and collaboration efforts among and between the Province, Regencies/Kabupatens and City government in the “post-reformation” era of local autonomy have just begun; controversies and on-going debates about authority, roles and functions of local institutions are yet to be resolved in the amended laws and local regulations. Governments and stakeholders in East Kalimantan have not yet developed a strategy, program, or information to generate support for the management of the Mahakam River, neither other programs for public awareness on environmental hazard mitigation nor similar systematic efforts for such disaster prevention planning related to the land use activities in the basin. To work on the Mahakam River Basin also means that the participation and cooperation of all upstream local communities and institutions is essential in the planning and management of the watershed jointly with the city of Samarinda and the coastal areas of EAROPH 2005 - Kemal Taruc 3 Kutai who are the “victims” of the upstream problems. Interregional insitutional coordination could focus in identifying an appropriate framework for potential collaborative management for the watershed including its hazard mitigation plans. Clearly it is a daunting task, very ambitious, and with so many challenges. But, as the old proverb says, “a one-thousand-mile journey starts from our first small footstep.” Leadership’s initiatives An open talk show at a local TV station was broadcasted to address the importance of intergovernmental coordination for Mahakam river basin management responding to the year’s big flood in Kutai regions. This was the first time such an issue of this magnitude and importance was discussed live in public by representatives of the Province, Samarinda City, and Kutai Kartanegara Regency. In the following weeks a new East Kalimantan Working Group (EKWG) was formed by the leadership of Mr. Ibnu Nirwani, the Governor’s Assistant who sees the a greater environmental hazard if the river’s problems are not properly worked out. The group was charged with the following main tasks. Coordination of the development of a methodology for Mahakam River basin management (and by inference the river basin spatial planning and action plans) involving all local government jurisdictions in the river basin and other significant stakeholders. Mitigate potential environmental hazards, particularly flood that directly affect the live of people, and incorporate such disaster mitigation plans in the integrated river basin management plan. Form a membership that includes all the local governments in the river basin, the province officials related to river basin issues, as well as representatives of local representatives, NGOs and the Mulawarman University. Developing methods of forest protection and improving relations between potential investors and local indigenous communities. Coordination of the East Kalimantan activities with related partners who could support the efforts. (Among the first potential partner to support with know-how and expertise was the State of Oregon, USA, and its network of institutions within). EAROPH 2005 - Kemal Taruc 4 The Process An important initial step taken was to conduct a public meeting, multi-stakeholder workshop to address the future of the Mahakam River Basin in the context of the interests and roles of the government and all stakeholders. The workshop was aimed at establishing a consensus vision of an appropriate future for the Mahakam River Basin, based on recognition of the issues facing the river basin and its present and future stakeholders. The agreed upon vision introduced and shared with all stakeholders represented is stated as: “to create integrated river basin management on the Mahakam that adopts sustainable environmental management for the benefits

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