This book examines the issuance of mining licenses in Indonesia from an environmental perspective. It shows how mining licensing has directly contributed to environmental degradation and how... Show moreThis book examines the issuance of mining licenses in Indonesia from an environmental perspective. It shows how mining licensing has directly contributed to environmental degradation and how consecutive governments have failed to take effective action addressing this problem. The main cause is the low quality of the relevant laws and policies, which is mostly a result of the priority law- and policymakers accord to mining development and a lack of interest in and knowledge about solving environmental problems. This situation has been exacerbated by a lack of public participation and bureaucratic “siloism”: government agencies often develop their own policies and regulations without efforts at co-ordination with other relevant government agencies. Only in a few cases have there been better results, when government agencies developing a policy had a strong interest in its implementation, when their officials disposed of adequate expertise, and when there was a favourable national political situation. Unfortunately, these conditions have rarely been present in Indonesia. Show less