The local politics of mining under decentralisation in Indonesia

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, artisanal and small-scale mining operations have expanded greatly in Indonesia, heralding new income opportunities for the rural poor in many parts of the country. However, as this study shows, the impact of artisanal and small-scale mining on rural livelihoods has been mixed. In some cases, economically vulnerable populations have become even more vulnerable since the arrival of mining. This dissertation examines the political economy of artisanal and small to medium-scale manganese mining in Nusa Tenggara Timur, one of Indonesia's poorest provinces. It examines contests between individuals, local communities, mining companies, and the state over access to minerals and land, and seeks to explain why an apparently promising alternative livelihood opportunity has produced widespread disappointment, resentment, mistrust and conflict.

The study highlights how national regulations and policies and local government incentives have worked against the interests of the poor. It argues that the rural poor are marginalised by the extractive process because the regulatory environment too easily allows local authorities to dismiss local claims to resources whenever they conflict with elite interests. Contrary to the promises of decentralisation, the lack of political power among the rural peasantry in NTT has deprived them of a voice in decision-making, leaving local elites the primary beneficiaries of the resource boom. Paradoxically, while democratic decentralisation triggered an expansion of mining activity that provided new mining livelihoods in NTT, and throughout Indonesia, on balance mining became another source of marginalisation and disempowerment for poor rural communities. Meanwhile, the incentives that localised control over mining created for policymakers often had a corrosive effect on local democratic institutions and the public's trust towards them.