Strategic Ecological Issues: Environmental Problems in a Perspective of Regional Development in Bangka Belitung

Abstract

A region’s development planning should be carried out by referring to the strategic issues faced by the region. Thus, strategic issues become the basis upon which regional governments formulate their policies and work programs. This study examined how each region in Bangka Belitung Islands Province positioned strategic issues of ecology in its regional development planning. The current writers examined eight regional governments’ Regional Medium-Term Development Plan (RMTDP) documents; one of which belongs to the provincial government, while the rest belongs to the regency/city governments. This study found that ecological issues comprised an average 17.6% of the strategic issues in all of the planning documents, the highest of which was found in Belitung Regency’s planning document. In addition, the analysis revealed that the general focus of the strategic ecological issues was environmental damage, which was reported by three of the regions as a result of mining activities. This study provides an illustration of how each regional government is committed to take ecological issues seriously and include them in the strategic issues at the regional level.

Environmental Improvement Policy through the obligation of post-tin mining reclamation in the islands of Bangka Belitung

“…Politics of environmental law and regulations concerning tin mining in Bangka Belitung from central to regional levels have revealed suboptimal results in promoting post-mining and reclamation obligations [11,12]. At the same time, ecological issues have always been strategic in the development planning documents to overcome environmental damages due to mining activities in all regencies and cities in the Bangka Belitung Islands [13].…”

Traditional Knowledge of Plants for Sunggau Rafters on Three Forest Types for Conservation of Apis dorsata in Indonesia

“…In Belitung Islands, the conversion of forests into tin mining sites and oil palm plantations has raised concerns about the ecological consequences of these activities, which might lead to fragmentation of the forests [15], affect biodiversity loss, and drain water sources [9]. In fact, the people in Belitung have rich traditional knowledge and local wisdom regarding the utilization and conservation of land as well as biodiversity.…”

“…The existence of A. dorsata in the Belitung Islands plays a fundamental role in community life. The bees contribute as important pollinators for natural plant communities and crops [24,25] and provide bee products such as honey and beebread [15]. The giant A. dorsata migrates annually to the blooming flowers across the continent [26,27].…”

The discourse of resistance against gold mining in Trenggalek

“…The environmental impacts of mining industry have been studied by many researchers, like Hilson who studied the environmental impacts of gold mining industry in Ghana [1]. In Indonesia, the environmental problems caused by extractive industries can be seen for instance, from the studies on tin mining in Bangka Belitung by Erwana et al [6], [7]. Another the newest published book on the environmental impact of human activity, which is translated into Indonesian version, is the 1190 (2023) 012009 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1190/1/012009 2 anthropological study of Palm industry in Indonesia by Tania M L and Pujo Semedi [8].…”