Small Scale Mining by Local Communities: Measuring Progress Towards a Sustainable Environment

Abstract

The essence of sustainable development is development based on three proportional considerations, namely economic considerations, social considerations and ecological considerations. This article uses normative legal research with case and conceptual approach to analyse mining policy towards small-scale mining by local communities. This research was conducted in North Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, as the research location based on the reality in this area where there are small-scale mining activities. The results show that the regional policy of North Sulawesi Province through the issuance of Regional Regulation No. 3 of 2019 is only a follow-up to the mining law. Guidance and supervision activities can only be given to community miners who have permits under Regional Regulations. The ideal policy of the local government related to small-scale mining by the people illegally is to view that the pattern of mining activities that have been carried out by the community in small groups, without organization, are speculative and illegal. For this reason, they must be changed and explicitly regulated, following their limited capabilities, both limited expertise and finance. For this, several aspects are needed for local governments in responding to the existence of illegal community miners, namely policy aspects, institutional aspects, capital aspects, technology and environmental management.