Response of the Indigenous Basap Dayak Community to Settlement Relocation by Coal Mining Company in East Kutai District, Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

The massive expansion and exploitation of coal mining has caused social and environmental impact on surrounding communities that caused the vanished of agricultural land and even land for settlement. The expansion of coal mining has caused the impacted communities need to relocated in other areas so that mining company could exploit the coal in accordance with the operating standard.  The purposes of this study were to assess the community's response after they relocated to new settlement in Matiro Wali village. For data collection, around 40 respondents already interviewed using Structured Questionnaires.  Respondents were given three options to express their response to each question: "satisfied”, "fair” and "less”. The data were tabulated and presented in percentage and graphics. Some aspects of assessment were the process of relocation, housing and sanitation, infrastructure development and road access, condition of social and economic facilities, agricultural land, hunting and fishing ground, and the potential future livelihoods.

Results show that the Basap Dayak community complained the social economic condition in the relocation village.  They complained about the bad access road to village/relocation area, the limitation of agricultural land that only 200 ha, limitation of hunting and fishing ground.  The uncertainty rights over the agricultural land in the new settlement also caused the villagers unwilling to be relocated. The responses of the respondents to some aspects of social and economic condition in a new relocation area are mostly not satisfied with the existing condition.  For example, in term of house development, around 57% respondents think ‘satisfied, 28% "fair” and the rest 15 "less”; in term of economic life around 46.6% "fair”, 49% "less” and only 7.2% feel "satisfied' with the economic life. Access to agricultural land also does not satisfy the respondents because the size is limited; development of road to relocation area is the most complained aspect by villagers because the road is very bad so that it could not be passed through in rainy season; hunting and fishing are the traditional ways of life of the Basap Dayak.