Gold Mine in North Sulawesi

[musi]

Hi everybody,

I've been a passive reader so far but one topic really troubles me. A few years ago there apparently have been plans to build a gold mine in North Sulawesi. These plans haven't been successful. According to some German Forums though, permition for the mine has now been granted I was in Bunaken, Lembeh and Gangga last summer and it was fantastic and I would love to go there many times. Does anybody of you have concrete information about what is going on there?

This is a great forum by the way!

Greetings from Germany!

 

[Malene]

Hello,
There are already working gold mines in North Sulawesi. You can see them when you drive from Manado to Bitung. Howerver, it seems to that there is a project to develop them even more. I received an email from the Dive Center in Pulisan (where I just stayed 2 weeks ago) explaining the situation. I don't know if the tourist industry is strong enough in that area to compete with the gold industry. As ususal, the long terms effects are ignored. Tourist (and especially diving tourism) is sustainable and has health benefits, so it would be logical to encourage it. However gold mining is quick money (even if it does not last and the ecological consequences are preoccupying).
Here are 2 links (one is in German) sent to me my Katrin (who runs the Pulisan Dive resort):
save lembeh - action alert
https://www.regenwald.org/protestaktion.php?id=487 (in German)

There are petitions to be sent... It is frustrating not to be able to do more for this area which is one of the most interesting one in the world for diving.

 

[Camel]

The gold mine has the green light. Even though the local Governor was dead against it he was over ruled by central government in Jakarta. Its third world and money talks. Unfortunately that is just the way things are. If they banned the International companies then the local miners would be in there in large numbers which would cause even more damage.
The tourism sector, through the NSWA, did manage to change the mines plans with regards to their dumping procedures. Originally they were going to dump their waste into the water which would have had a huge negative efect on the Lembeh Straits but instead are now doing a landfill inland. Not perfect but a heck of a lot better than plan A. The tourism sector is tiny in North Sulawesi compared to the likes of Bali so does not have a huge amount of the proverbial muscle.
The foreign owned dive operators were the driving force behind this, channeling their efforts through the North Sulawesi Watersports Association. It is a tricky situation because if they go to one end of the spectrum and take the confrontational route like Pulisan Resort they end up being branded "tree huggers"and dismissed as selfish because they are against development in North Sulawesi. Expressing the view of not being against development as long as it is done in an ënvironmentally safe way is the only way to get the local people and international banks backing the project to listen. This helped safe Lembeh from certain disaster.
U really must remember when your looking at this situation that things work a lot different over there. U cannot compare it to how things work back in Europe or the States. But please do sign the petitions u find online because every name does add little bit more weight and pressure to local efforts.