IUP Moratorium under the Draft Bill on Archipelagic Regions

The Regional Representatives Council ("DPD") of the Republic of Indonesia has requested that the Draft Bill on Archipelagic Regions ("Draft Bill") regulate a moratorium on mining business licenses ("IUP") in archipelagic regions. Member of the DPD RI, R. Graal Taliawo, said that this moratorium is necessary in order to preserve the living spaces of communities and the ecological conditions of archipelagic regions.

Graal gave the example that more than 20 percent of the land area of North Maluku has already been allocated for mining. "Out of 3 million hectares of land in North Maluku, 655,000 hectares are already mining areas. If this continues, then the community will be forced to live at sea," he said.

In addition, Graal believes that the moratorium is necessary in order to give the government time to verify and validate the IUP. This follows the discovery of overlapping licenses in several regions, including North Maluku. The DPD believes that the moratorium is necessary in order to improve supervision and resolve agrarian conflicts between communities and corporations that have arisen as a result of past licensing issues.

Furthermore, Graal said that the pause in the granting of licenses is also important in order to prevent environmental damage in archipelagic regions that have limited carrying capacities. "This is what we need to protect," he said.