CSEAS Brown Bag Seminar: “Filling a Void: The Challenges of Mine Site Rehabilitation in Kalimantan”

Event time: 
Wednesday, November 7, 2018 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location: 
Henry R. Luce Hall (LUCE ), 203 See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
Event description: 

Coal mining is a major driver of environmental degradation in Kalimantan. Millions of hectares of land have been granted as mining concessions, leading to wide-scale deforestation and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Indonesian government regulations require mining companies to progressively rehabilitate mined areas as a way to mitigate the industry’s social and environmental impacts. To date, however, the results have remained largely inadequate. To help address this problem, Yale’s Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative (ELTI) has been working closely with the Indonesian Ministry of Environment & Forestry and other local partners to implement a training program for mining company staff and relevant government representatives. To date, a total of six field trainings events have been held, as well as a variety of symposia and workshops. This presentation will provide an overview of the Indonesian coal mining sector and highlight opportunities and challenges to building local capacity in mine site rehabilitation. It will also present some ideas for moving forward, including the development of an online training program, the involvement of Ministry of Environment & Forestry’s regional training centers, and the establishment of a professional competency standard for mine site rehabilitation.

David Neidel has been the ELTI Asia Program Coordinator since he led the establishment of the program in 2008. He was based at the National University of Singapore and Yale-NUS College for the last ten years and now splits his time between the US and the Philippines, while overseeing ELTI’s programs in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. David previously worked as a Visiting Professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He earned his Ph.D. in 2006 from Yale’s Combined Program in Forestry & Environmental Studies and Anthropology.

David Neidel, Coordinator, Asia Program, Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ETLI), Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies