Ancient, dense rainforest, amazing biodiversity, beautiful beaches: the Southeast Asian island of Borneo is a natural wonder. But it is getting more and more in trouble – among other things because rainforest is being cut down for the mining of coal, also by the mining company PT Borneo Prima. Since 2019, the company has been mining 2.3 million tons of coal annually in the Kalimantan region.
150 hectares of rainforest have been destroyed and 15,000 hectares are under threat
With consequences: “So far, 150 hectares of rainforest have been destroyed for the coal mine, 15,000 hectares are threatened,” says Johanna Michel, deputy manager of the Bruno Manser Fund, an association based on its founder, the environmental activist Bruno Manser, for the preservation of the tropical rain forests and the rights of the people on Borneo.
“The rainforest in the heart of Borneo is a unique ecosystem, habitat for an incredible number of animal and plant species,” says Michel. Endangered or even endangered animal and plant species such as the white-bearded gibbon, the yellow-crowned bulbul or the rhinoceros bird live and grow in the area of the mining concession. The company is aware of this, as a look at its environmental compatibility study shows.
Swiss company was also involved in coal mine
Until recently, a Swiss company was also closely involved with the coal mine on Borneo. As documents available to SonntagsBlick prove, IMR Holding AG, based in Zug, held a 49 percent stake in the coal mine in spring 2021.
According to the online portalzentrplus.ch, the public limited company is the parent company of an international group of 25 companies that are active in raw materials trading, mining and raw materials processing. The President of the Board of Directors is the lawyer Hans-Rudolf Wild, a partner in the Schweiger law firm and former President of the Free Democratic Party of Zug. In the meantime, the IMR group is no longer involved in the PT Borneo Prima, Wild clarifies when asked by SonntagsBlick.
That does not change the fact that the group is partly responsible for the environmental destruction, says Oliver Heimgartner, spokesman for the Coalition for Corporate Responsibility and respected human rights. Unfortunately, this example once again proves the opposite,” he criticizes. And states: “The mining of coal in the rainforest endangers endangered animal species and violates international environmental standards.”
A coal mine in the rainforest is also ecologically devastating because it destroys important CO2 storage and further fuels climate change through coal mining.
OECD guidelines are based “on the principle of voluntariness”
Last year, the Bruno Manser Fund wrote to the company about the allegations and asked for an open dialogue. In the reply, which is available to SonntagsBlick, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Hans-Rudolf Wild, stated that compliance with regulations in the area of environmental protection and the protection of the population is one of the most important concerns of the IMR Group. However, the OECD guidelines merely “express an expectation directed at companies”, they are based “on the principle of voluntariness” – they are not legally binding. It has not yet been transposed into Swiss law. Therefore, one sees no need to go into detail about the questions asked by the association – and will not conduct any further correspondence with the environmentalists. Wild did not want to comment on the allegations against SonntagsBlick either.
The Bruno Manser Fund sees the fact that IMR Holding no longer has a stake in the coal mine as a good sign. Johanna Michel: «If IMR actually disposed of the coal mine, I would rate that as a success. However, we demand that IMR no longer purchases coal from rainforest areas.»
Still listed on the company website despite the sale of shares
When asked by SonntagsBlick, Hans-Rudolf Wild did not want to disclose why and to whom IMR Holding sold its shares. And the question as to why IMR Metallurgical Resources AG – where Wild also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors – still lists the coal mine in Borneo as a production site on its website, along with gold and iron ore mines in Mexico and a steel factory in Indonesia, also remained unanswered. The company mainly operates in the extraction, processing and trading of natural resources and describes itself online as a leading global raw materials partner to the international energy and steel industry.