Save Bangka Island: Sign petition to halt mining!

[BlueBayDivers]

hi mossman, just to make one thing clear. we are speaking about bangka island, north sulawesi. manado. which is actually not a remote island. the damage will have an impact for bangka, bunaken and even lembeh strait. all close by! thanks anke

 

[Mossman]

hi mossman, just to make one thing clear. we are speaking about bangka island, north sulawesi. manado. which is actually not a remote island. the damage will have an impact for bangka, bunaken and even lembeh strait. all close by! thanks anke

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it is remote as far as most people in the world are concerned. Ask the average American, Canadian, Mexican, Serbian, Sri Lankan, or Finn about Bangka and see how concerned they are that mining will affect equally remote Lembeh and Bunaken. If the government in Jakarta doesn't give a whit about Bangka, you can hardly convince the rest of the world to care. Bangka has been an ecological nightmare for a long time and still no one has heard of it.

 

[jt17]

Blue Bay Divers, You got to get international organizations like the WWF and UNEP behind you I think. Indonesia is also part of the Coral Triangle Initiative, so they are another way to pressure the government. I don't think petitions will help. Good luck!

 

[Wisnu]

I don't know how effective this petition, but I signed it and forward to other people I that I know including oppositions
I have no problem if they take as an opportunity to attack gov. as long as will stop or at least delay the destruction - that's it what polotician doing
I also glad somebody has posted in local diving forum, seem get reasonably good response. I've checked significant number Indonesian has signed in.
Will it stop the crime ? Don't know but at least the more people know the better,

 

[Mossman]

Also, when interfering in the politics of another country, one always has to wonder if signing a petition could possibly get one in trouble. After all, it's entirely possible that Indonesia and other countries don't have the same traditions of free political speech as in the U.S. By signing a petition that implies criticism of government actions in a foreign country, one might be subject to some sort of government response if visiting that foreign country in the future. I'm not saying that the Indonesian government would necessarily put all foreign petition signers on a watch list that would subject them upon entering the country to immediate arrest and being beaten on the soles of ones feet with rubber hoses and burnt on the face with clove cigarettes, but it is something to think about before blindly "signing" anything.

 

[BlueBayDivers]

thanks to help us to get the message in the world. we need every support we can get and the petition is to show to ngo's and government, that the world cares about that piece of nature here - the golden triangle.
the petition is just a part of what we are doing.
jt17 - you are right, but we have to get them listening to us!
and mossman, in that time you posting, you could have signed already many times and show your commitment...
thanks to all which want to help us and keep going
anke

 

[fin-finn]

Unfortunately mining is often more lucrative than tourism, especially in remote areas like Bangka which attract mere handfuls of divers and few others.

"The majority of the inhabitants are Malay Indonesians and Chinese mostly Hakkas. The population is split between those who work the pepper farms and those who
work on the tin mines."

Unless the mining operation interferes with the pepper farms, I don't think anyone there gives a damn. You really want to make a difference with a petition, get the pepper farmers to sign, and get some lobbying support from the pepper industry. No one is going to care about a petition signed by foreigners who like to see fish any more than they'd care about a petition signed by fish.

Well, in a way I understand well your cynism etc. of what´s the point & help of signing petition like this, when at least 99% of Western people have no idea of whereabouts of Bangka etc. Actually you - and also I until 1 hour ago... - seem to belong to that majority of knowing very very little of Bangka, even after reading the same article than you of it at Wikipedia from which you quoted that "information" of Bangka. Put in quatation marks because the "information" you delivered AND based your following writings in your previous message of who and which should be get more involved in action against those dispruptive mining plans etc. were fundamentally WRONG!!

So because there actually exists two (2) islands at very vast Indonesian archipelago named Bangka! One, on the east side Sumatra is much larger (11000 square kilometers) and is the one which is written at Wikipedia under title "Bangka". But then there is also other one - which is same time the RIGHT one of this important petition-action too! - much smaller (only 48 square kms) one located near the Northern end of Sulawesi. Where there is NO industrialized pepper production or hundreds of thousands hakka-chinese living at all, just being tiny fishermen´s island, where nowadays those few local local people´s income also depends largely of foreign scuba-diver tourists and the money they leave behind. So that´s why signing this petition IS worthwhile quick doing from every single of us: Scuba-diving etc is now major income source for local people AND because that planned ugly/corrupted mining site might have destroying effects even on further lying coral/marine life filled island-areas (including world famous Bunaken National Marine Park area at the other side of Sulawesi´s north-top).

Diving in Bangka - Indonesia
Manado Diving in Bunaken Island - Indonesia



Ps. At least rainforest-rescue.org has taken this very important petition on their Action-list (and being on their mailalert-list was at least for me the way to find out of it), hopefully also some even bigger/more well-known NGO´s would too! So because Together we CAN change things for better as there IS many cases where pressure (even quite small scale) HAS made and been very crucial reason for stopping creedy/destructive projects like the one very unfortunately planned to (the correct) Pulau Bangka! ;-)
https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/m...angka-island-indonesia-save-our-coral-gardens

 

[Mossman]

So because there actually exists two (2) islands at very vast Indonesian archipelago named Bangka! One, on the east side Sumatra is much larger (11000 square kilometers) and is the one which is written at Wikipedia under title "Bangka". But then there is also other one - which is same time the RIGHT one of this important petition-action too! - much smaller (only 48 square kms) one located near the Northern end of Sulawesi. Where there is NO industrialized pepper production or hundreds of thousands hakka-chinese living at all, just being tiny fishermen´s island, where nowadays those few local local people´s income also depends largely of foreign scuba-diver tourists and the money they leave behind. So that´s why signing this petition IS worthwhile quick doing from every single of us: Scuba-diving etc is now major income source for local people AND because that planned ugly/corrupted mining site might have destroying effects even on further lying coral/marine life filled island-areas (including world famous Bunaken National Marine Park area at the other side of Sulawesi´s north-top).

You're right, my mistake. Apparently there are two Bangka Islands, one already heavily mined for tin, the other to be mined for iron.

Sorry, but that makes my point even better. Only a handful of fishing villages and some ex-pat owned dive resorts versus the might of the Indonesia government and China? If it's illegal to mine there, the ex-pats profiting from the diving had better pool together and find a good lawyer. Given the devastation caused to other Indonesian islands in the name of tin, oil, etc., why would anyone who matters there care about a petition? Money talks, maybe the rule of law can persevere, but petitions are a wasted effort.