Minister Susi pushes for nationwide moratorium on land reclamation

As Indonesia’s Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti sees it, Indonesia’s already got enough islands. 

Reports have been released over the past month that Pudjiastuti has a nation-wide moratorium of land reclamation in the works. 

Why should we care in Bali? One of the country’s biggest potential land reclamation projects is currently stalemated in South Bali’s Benoa Bay, where developers would put an artificial island fully equipped with hotels, various tourist attractions, and even an F1 track.

The moratorium Pudjiastuti is referring to would put a freeze on all commercial permits for dredging and reclamation, but airports and seaports would still be on the table, according to a report by Muhammad Idris, published in Detik Finance. 

Construction of hotels, apartments, shopping centers, etc. would not be allowed under said moratorium. 

“I am discussing how in the future to have no more reclamation for making hotel rooms. There will be no reclamation for ATMs. No reclamations for malls. In my opinion, we still have a lot of land already. Why do we need to reclaim?” Pudjiastuti said in Jakarta on Sept. 30, as quoted by Detik.

According to Pudjiastuti, Indonesian fishermen’s guardian (have you seen how she’ll blow foreign boats out of the water?), the issue of reclamation is a sustainability problem for marine fisheries ecosystems and ultimately ends up destroying the livelihoods of fishermen. 

But we’re still left wondering if and when this moratorium would actually happen and we still don’t know how President Joko Widodo (who has been noticeably silent on Bali’s land reclamation issue) would even respond.

Pudjiastuti says the plan for a reclamation moratorium is still under discussion in the ministry, before it will make its way to Jokowi. 

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