Continued Environmental Damage in Balikpapan

I have regularly posted an update of Stan Lhota's almost forlorn campaign to prevent the environmental destruction in East Kalimantan. (Read my February post for links to all the others.)

Stan has recently sent a couple of emails regarding this year's continued rapaciousness of non-local companies and their disregard of the damaging consequences of their actions on mangoves, the rivers and coral reefs.

1. 
- PT Pelindo (port authority) have cleared mangroves and closed three tributaries.
- PT Bumi Andalas Bloom (WiImar Group) has been reported to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for illegal mangrove conversion and soil dumping.
- PT Agro Indomas (Goodhope Asia Holdings Ltd) is poisoning grass lands surrounding mangroves, thus poisoning the Palike River. In 2011, the company was awarded a Green PROPER Award for "commitment to environment and sustainable practices."

2.
The rarely found shallow water coral reefs of Balikpapan Bay, which are highly sensitive to silting due to increased erosion and sedimentation resulting from forest destruction along the coast, are also under serious risk.

- PT Dermaga Kencana Indonesia (DKI), a subsiduary of PT Kencana Agri Ltd (also listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange), plans to convert the coastal forest into a huge crude palm oil processing factory. DKI has built and now operate a palm oil bulking station which has already caused serious damage to several coral reefs!

Please help by signing and sharing this important petition! - Furthermore, illegal logging continues in Balikpapan and surrounding areas.

One further point: the Government of Balikpapan plans to relocate the Sun Bear Education Centre. The sun bear is Balikpapan's 'mascot', and the centre provides valued environmental education.

A petition has been launched asking the politicians to continue supporting the center and their sun bears.

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