Professor Of IPB Says There Is An Added Value For The Community From The Tin Case

JAKARTA - Professor of the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) Prof. Sudarsono Soedomo revealed that there are added value for the community arising from the mining hole in the case of alleged corruption in the tin commodity trading system in the PT Timah Tbk Mining Business Permit (IUP) area in 2015-2022 which is estimated to have cost the state up to IDR 271 trillion.

The reason is, in some cases, the surrounding community asks for mining to remain because it provides water.

"Mining institutions due to reclamation cannot only be considered a loss for the community. In fact, people through local governments are asked to continue to let it be like that."

"However, pumps are then provided so that they can become a source of drinking water for the community," said Sudarsono in his statement, Saturday, November 23, 2024.

Sudarsono stated that the losses that appeared were not necessarily negative. There is another side that has the potential to even be directly felt by the benefits of the surrounding community.

"Okay, so I took two environmental services. Water storage and biodiversity. We'll see the environmental services."

"Well, when he was still forest, the value of the water storage service was there. I don't know how much, (surely) there was. Then, there was also biodiversity," he said.

"Then, after this is converted into a mine and there is a fluid (hole), we will see again water storage and biodiversity. It could be 0 biodiversity, 0 diversity," he said again.

According to Sudarsono, so far no party has calculated the impact of the benefits gained by the community.

This means that when asked to calculate environmental losses, it means that you must also assess how the final impact will have benefits on the community, both in terms of tourism or other benefits.

"Ahli tidak bisa hanya mengungkap kerugian tanpa melihat dampak positifnya," kata Sudarsono.

Sudarsono assessed that experts cannot only measure the impact of losses from one side, but must be asked again to the local community.

"That's right, so the people think it's the community. What thinks the complaint is a reflection of society, not reflection from experts."

"The expert only uses the right method to replace what the community feels, that's actually," he said.

"Oh, I think it's like this, an expert is not like that! The expert explores how much this value is. Yes, we ask the community. I'm not the one who continues to score, the expert can't!" he said.

Previously, Professor of the Faculty of Forestry, IPB Prof. Bambang Hero Saharjo revealed that the total loss due to environmental damage caused in the case of alleged corruption in the tin commodity trading system in the 2015 PT Timah Tbk IUP region until 2022 reached IDR 271 trillion.

Bambang said the loss value of IDR 271.06 trillion was a calculation of environmental losses due to tin mines in forest areas and outside forest areas.

"If all forest areas and non-forest areas are combined, the total loss due to damage that must also be borne by the state is Rp271,069,688,018,700," Bambang said at a press conference in Jakarta some time ago.