Research team secures million dollar grant

More than $1 million in Federal Government grant funding has been awarded to a Charles Darwin University research team to help improve the livelihoods of rural communities in Indonesia.

The Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL) team will use the Government Partnerships for Development grant to monitor the impacts of artisanal and small scale mining (ASM) in eastern Indonesia over two years.

Senior Research Fellow Dr Bronwyn Myers said the team would work with local Indonesian partners to reduce the negative social and environmental impacts of ASM.

“If we can improve governance and management in the sector, this could improve the livelihoods of local members of the community,” she said.

Dr Myers said ASM had the potential to ease poverty by creating cash income for the rural poor, but also posed dangers because the sector was unmonitored and unregulated.

Dangers included death from mine shaft collapse, ill-health from water pollution, child labour, and harm to ecosystems.

She said the project reflected CDU’s commitment to investing in research that had the ability to create positive impacts for communities, and would foster relationships between the federal and NT governments and their Indonesian counterparts.

The team will work with local university and government partners, along with Australian National University’s Associate Professor Andrew McWilliam, to monitor manganese mining in Kupang, West Timor, and goldmining in Kendari, Sulawesi.