A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

Revisions to Indonesian Law Promote Unregulated Mining (The Diplomat)

Since gold was discovered in 2011 on Mount Botak in Indonesia, thousands of miners have flocked to the area without official permits. It is an influx which has transformed this northeastern region from an agricultural center into a hub of small-scale, unregulated mining. Uncontrolled use of mercury and cyanide has severely polluted local rivers, with mercury levels in the Waekase River reaching 0.05 mg/L—or 50 times the WHO’s safety threshold. Yet despite the government’s move to close the mine in 2015, illegal activity continues.  Ineffective law enforcement has caused ecosystem destruction, public health threats (including neurological disorders and kidney damage) and deadly conflicts between residents.

Indonesia’s federal government has sought to centralize its power over mining by adopting Article 35 and 136 as part of the 2020 revision of Indonesia’s Mineral and Coal Mining Law. This move has undermined local control mechanisms, however, and resulted in land grabbing, marginalization of indigenous peoples who lost access to productive land, and a licensing process that excludes meaningful community participation. The latter point is especially damaging, since the country’s environmental laws guarantee citizen rights to information and to make objections.

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Liquified Natural Gas Projects Displace Thousands on Bangladesh’s Coasts (The Diplomat)

Communities in the Matarbari region of southeastern Bangladesh face displacement and livelihood destruction from nearby coal and gas-fired power plants. Residents in the Chattogram division also are being pushed to accept huge polluting liquefied natural gas power plants and infrastructure in their vicinity. These new LNG power projects and import terminals will cost Bangladesh’s economy $50 billion, while threatening the safety and health of millions through the creation of toxic pollution and increased odds for worsening climate disasters such as floods and cyclones.

These LNG initiatives also have meant the loss of ancestral lands for thousands of Indonesian fish, salt, and betel leaf farmers. Many of them have received no compensation, despite promises from the same project authorities who sent excavators to forcibly remove families and destroy homes, trees, and land. Resettled families now are squeezed into small areas without adequate space. In one case, 44 families live crammed together amidst toxic pollution emanating from coal plant smokestacks.

READ | The Women of Sarawak and Mindoro on the “Invisible Battles” of Climate Change

COP30 Puts Pressure on Social and Environmental Conditions in Belém (Mongabay)

The capital of Brazil’s Amazonian state of Pará. Belém, will host 50,000 visitors for the November 2025 COP30 summit. Yet the metropolis faces stark contradictions that have emerged from its status as the “gateway to the Amazon.” Official data shows 55% of the city’s inhabitants live on streets without a single tree. Peripheral neighborhoods such as Miramar remain 98% treeless, while residents of  wealthier central areas of Belém live on tree-lined streets.

Rampant population growth in Belém since the mid-20^th century has pushed 57% of its residents into baixadas—low-lying, flood-prone slums where only 17.1% of those who live there can connected to sewage systems. (A mere 3.6% of sewage here is treated.) While the federal government allocated $891 million for 45+ infrastructure projects in preparation for COP30 (including sewage treatment plants and drainage canal rehabilitation), critics argue that even these investments favor wealthy areas. They observe that peripheral neighborhoods in  Belém receive only concrete canalization, without additional trees or communal spaces.

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