Two weeks after government and law enforcement leaders vowed to crack down on illegal gold mining in the semiautonomous Indonesian province of Aceh, local communities on the ground say excavators are still at work in the forest interior.
“Excavators continue to access the verges of the rivers. Similarly, fuel and supplies keep being sent to this mining site,” Amran, a community leader from Seunagan in Nagan Raya district, told Mongabay Indonesia.
Aceh, on the island of Sumatra, is Indonesia’s westernmost region and home to crucial high-conservation-value tropical forests and peatlands, including the Leuser Ecosystem, a stronghold for Sumatran elephants, orangutans, rhinos, sun bears, and tigers. Yet these habitats remain under pressure from lucrative extractive industries.
In late July, top government, security, and law-enforcement officials in Aceh convened to order all illegal gold mining in the region to be halted by Aug. 17, Indonesia’s independence anniversary.
However, sources on the ground around some of Aceh’s known illegal mining locations told Mongabay Indonesia that many of these operations continued working as normal as of late August.
“Diesel is always out of stock at gas stations because it’s being used by the heavy equipment digging for gold by the riverbanks and on the mountainside,” said Razali, who lives in Fajar in South Aceh district.
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If fuel supplies are cut off, the distribution of mercury is stopped, heavy equipment is seized, and illegal gold trading routes are paralysed, then we’re confident that mining activities will be incapacitated.
Ahmad Shalihin, director, Indonesian Forum for the Environment
At a mining site in Pidie district, people reported still seeing the tarpaulin shelters used by miners.
“If it’s just an announcement, it won’t have any effect,” Hamdani, a resident of Tangse in Pidie district, said in response to the government deadline. “They [groups of gold miners] as a team are strong enough to guard the area where they operate.”
Call for crackdown
The regional coordination meeting of law enforcement and government leaders held in July concluded that “all actors are required to cease operations and remove heavy equipment and mining tools by Aug. 17, 2026.”
The announcement also reiterated a ban on the use of cyanide and mercury, and that miners could face prosecution under a range of laws, including a 1999 forestry law and 2020 mining law.
Illegal miners use mercury because it binds to gold in crushed ore, while cyanide can extract remaining gold particles. Both chemicals are widely used, and both present extreme risk of death or long-term cognitive decline.
M. Nasir, who was the leading civil servant in Aceh until he was replaced by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in August, said the government was aware of illegal gold mining activities in the districts of Aceh Besar, Aceh Jaya, Central Aceh, Gayo Lues, Nagan Raya, Pidie, South Aceh, Southwest Aceh, and West Aceh.
“These activities cause environmental pollution, increased risk of social conflict, increased risk of workplace accidents, and lost potential revenue for the state and regions,” the then-Aceh provincial secretary said on Aug. 22.
Ruddi Setiawan, the Aceh police chief, called for greater institutional collaboration to confront miners.
“It’s going to take robust cooperation,” said Ruddi, a former police chief on the island of Bali. “We need to collaborate.”
Environmental damage
Ahmad Shalihin, director of the provincial chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the country’s largest environmental pressure group, called on authorities to raid all mining sites and seize expensive heavy equipment from the miners.
“The state must pursue the financiers, freeze their assets, and bring them to justice,” Ahmad said. “This gets to the real source of the problem.”
Walhi research from 2023-2025 concluded that 23,433 hectares (57,904 acres) of forest cover were damaged during this period by illegal mining activities.
“That’s equivalent to four times the area of Banda Aceh,” Ahmad said, referring to the provincial capital city.
“More than 1,000 units of heavy equipment have been identified as operating in forest areas,” he added. “And there are over 450 illegal mining operations across various regions of Aceh.”
Some 10,552 hectares (26,075 acres), or 45 per cent of the total damaged area, occurred in protected forests, the Walhi analysis showed. More than 80 per cent of the damage was concentrated in three main river systems: the Meureubo, Seunagan, and Woyla rivers, the latter of which accounted for almost a third of the total damage.
Environmental damage
Ahmad Shalihin, director of the provincial chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the country’s largest environmental pressure group, called on authorities to raid all mining sites and seize expensive heavy equipment from the miners.
“The state must pursue the financiers, freeze their assets, and bring them to justice,” Ahmad said. “This gets to the real source of the problem.”
Walhi research from 2023-2025 concluded that 23,433 hectares (57,904 acres) of forest cover were damaged during this period by illegal mining activities.
“That’s equivalent to four times the area of Banda Aceh,” Ahmad said, referring to the provincial capital city.
“More than 1,000 units of heavy equipment have been identified as operating in forest areas,” he added. “And there are over 450 illegal mining operations across various regions of Aceh.”
Some 10,552 hectares (26,075 acres), or 45 per cent of the total damaged area, occurred in protected forests, the Walhi analysis showed. More than 80 per cent of the damage was concentrated in three main river systems: the Meureubo, Seunagan, and Woyla rivers, the latter of which accounted for almost a third of the total damage.
This story was published with permission from Mongabay.com.
