KNTI Considers Sea Sand Export Rules As An Effort Of Sea Commercialization

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Traditional Fishermen Association (KNTI) assesses the new regulations related to the management of sedimentation products at sea, namely, Government Regulation (PP) No. 26/2023 concerning Management of Sedimentation Products in the Sea is an effort to commercialize the sea.

"This regulation actually hides the main orientation of marine commercialization behind the guise of preserving the marine and coastal environment through the management of sedimentation products," said KNTI Chairman Dani Setiawan as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, May 31.

Dani revealed that the policy emphasized that the government transferred state responsibility in fulfilling the human rights of every Indonesian citizen to a good and healthy environment, especially in the sea and coastal areas as mandated by the 1945 Constitution Article 28H paragraph (1) and Law no. 32/2009 concerning Protection and Management of the Environment, is the responsibility of the private sector or business actors.

The regulation, he continued, was also considered worse than the RI Presidential Decree No. 33/2002 concerning Control and Supervision of Sea Sand Exploitation which was made by the Fifth President of the Republic of Indonesia Megawati Soekarno Puteri to control the negative impacts of using sea sand for the environment, fishermen and fish cultivators.

In addition, PP No. 26/2023 is also a step backwards in preserving coastal and marine ecosystems by reopening business permits for sea sand mining for commercial purposes and even for export.

It is considered that this legal regulatory regime is deliberately intended to revise the Decree of the Minister of Industry and Trade No. 117/MPP/Kep/2/2003 concerning Temporary Suspension of Sea Sand Exports, a regulation issued eight months after KEPPRES No. 33/2002.

“In the past, the export of sea sand was a lucrative business, but it has also cost the country millions of dollars due to the illegal export of sea sand. Mining of sea sand is getting out of control and destroying the marine and coastal environment, threatening fishermen's lives, and benefiting other countries," added Dani.

Fishermen at loss

KNTI also regrets that this PP does not mention fishermen and cultivators who are potentially affected by sea sand utilization activities, both in preambles and in the articles therein.

"Fishermen and cultivators are foreign and unfamiliar vocabulary in regulations that are actually very close to these two actors," he said.

Misbachul Munir, Head of the DPP KNTI for Fishermen Advocacy and Protection, said that ecologically sea sand mining can increase coastal abrasion and beach erosion, reduce the quality of the sea and coastal waters, potentially increase beach pollution, and reduce seawater quality by increasing seawater turbidity.

Sea sand mining can also damage fish spawning areas and nursery grounds, damage mangrove ecosystems, and disrupt aquaculture areas, change patterns of ocean currents that have been understood for generations by coastal communities and fishermen, to the vulnerability to disasters in fishing villages.

"Damage to the carrying capacity of the ecology due to the use/mining of sea sand will disrupt the economy of fishermen and coastal communities. Among them are declining fishermen's income, higher operational costs at sea, and restrictions on access and passage in the sea sand mining area, to the loss of fishing locations for certain fishermen, such as pertorosan or flow-fed fishermen in Surabaya," said Misbachul.