Jakarta Post reported that forest experts and activists have warned the Forestry Ministry against approving permits for coal mining in the Meratus protected forest in South Kalimantan, arguing that it could cause a water crisis in the province.

Nine regents in the province have granted principal permits to 229 mining companies allowing them to mine the huge deposit of coal in the 200,000 hectare protected forest. However, mining companies must first seek approval from the Forestry Ministry before they can start their explorations.

Mr Udiansyah a forest expert from Lambung Mangkurat University in Banjarmasin said that the government had to reject the mining companies' requests, claiming the companies would use open cut mining techniques which are banned under the 1999 Forest Law. He said that most of the 229 mining companies were small scale mining firms that would operate in less than 5,000 hectares.

Mr Udiansyah said that coal mining, however only contributed about 5% to the province IDR 1.8 trillion budgets in 2008.

Mr Kahar Al Bahri coordinator of Mining Networks in East Kalimantan said that the coal mining had become a profitable business in Kalimantan because under the regional autonomy, regional heads had intensively sold coal mining permits in a bid to improve their annual revenue and generate jobs to help cope with unemployment.

He said that "Selling permits are an emerging business for regents in Kalimantan. There are many overlapping permits in East Kalimantan. And only 1% of that coal was used in East Kalimantan, making electricity blackouts a daily occurrence in the province.

(Sourced from Jakarta Post)