Indonesia’s reversal on sea sand export ban sparks backlash from threatened coastal communities

Afdillah, an ocean campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia, told This Week in Asia the ban’s reversal “adds to a long list of [Widodo’s] environmental sins, whose benefits are not comparable to the environmental, economic and social damages felt by the affected communities.”

“Regulating sea sand exports can optimise the results of sedimentation in the sea for the benefit of developing and rehabilitating coastal and marine ecosystems,” Isy Karim, director general of foreign trade at the ministry, said in a statement on September 9.

Indonesia was a major supplier of sea sand to Singapore in the 1970s, fuelling the city state’s massive land-reclamation projects. According to think tank Tenggara Strategics, Indonesia’s sea sand contributed to expanding Singapore’s land area by 25 per cent from 1976 to 2001.