The Urgency of Social Aspects in Environmental Assessment: A Case Study of a Sustainable Geothermal Power Plant Development in Banyumas, Indonesia

Abstract

For every large-scale development with the potential to have a significant and essential impact, there must be an environmental assessment first. Geothermal Power Plant Development (GPPD) in Banyumas is classified as a large-scale project. Therefore, an environmental assessment was also carried out before the project started. The initiator has owned the Environmental Management Effort (EM) and Environmental Monitoring Effort (EME) since 2011. Due to a change in planning, the EM and EME were updated again in 2016. Even though the GPPD has the environmental management and monitoring plans, it faces an ongoing resistance from the community during the implementation of the exploration stage. This action may disrupt the exploration process. The purpose of this paper is to find out why there is social upheaval or rejection and demonstrations from society. This study was designed as qualitative research that is descriptive and analytic. Descriptive analysis was based on data, documents resulting from interviews and discussions with various stakeholders who know about cases of community demonstrations against GPPD exploration. The results of the study show that social environmental aspects receive less attention to the affected communities so that when environmental pollution occurs, the community overreacts to the GPPD construction implementers and the government. Supposedly, if the social environment aspect is carried out proportionally, then there will be no resistance from the community. In this case, the executors of the development have been bothered and even disrupted the development process itself. The social aspects that are less proportional are limited socialization, inaccurate ecological delineation, late recruitment of local workers, and insufficient involvement of NGOs.