Adianto P. Simamora and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has issued a new decree restricting sand exports from Riau province to Singapore over the next four months to 26 million cubic meters in a bid to help protect the local marine and coastal environment.

According to Decree No. 598/2002, if the limit is exceeded before the end of December, the government will impose a temporary export ban.

The decree was signed by Minister of Trade and Industry Rini M. Soewandi on Tuesday and will come into effect on Sept. 5.

Under the decree, sand exporters must first seek approval from the local administration for the volume of their sand exports. The Riau provincial government will then issue permits under a quota system.

Sand exports have sparked protests from many parties, including legislators and environmental groups, who say that they only cause losses to both the local administration and local people.

Uncontrolled sand mining in Riau has caused severe environmental damage and led to the disappearance of a number of small islets in the province.

Riau has been exporting both sand both legally and illegally to Singapore for many years to support the city state's construction sector and coastal reclamation projects.

Singapore is estimated to need some 1.8 billion cubic meters of sand over the next eight years.

Meanwhile, Ferry Yahya, director of agricultural and mining products at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, urged the Singapore government to disclose its real need for Indonesian sand so as to help Indonesia formulate a better policy on sand exports.

He said that the new decree on limiting exports was based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), which recorded sand exports from Riau last year at about 80 million cubic meters.

"We hope that Singapore will be more transparent about its demand for Indonesian sand," he told The Jakarta Post.

The government has in the passed announced various measures to curb illegal sand mining. However, these measures have generally failed to halt the mining, which is believed to be backed by military figures and international operators.

However, Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh denied on Tuesday Navy backing or involvement in sand smuggling to Singapore.

"We (the Navy) are making efforts to stop the sand smuggling. And within the last two days, we've managed to arrest five ships that are involved. Previously, we arrested seven other ships at Tanjung Balai and Tanjung Uban in Riau," Bernard told a press conference after attending at a seminar on maritime issues.

Bernard was responding to a question whether one of the seven ships that were currently being detained in Riau belonged to the Navy. Reports have it that the ship, the NV Gojornov, has been chartered by the Navy from Russia.

"I categorically deny that any of my men, or any Navy cooperatives, are involved in these activities," Bernard said.

"What we have discovered is that these ships were using fake documents, including the logbooks recording how many times they had shipped sand to Singapore," he stated.

He said that sand smuggling violated Law No. 23/1997 on the environment.

Another top Navy official in Batam, Col. Afyaman AS, said that some 54 sand dredgers out of the total of 70 such vessels worldwide were now operating in Riau waters.

"Riau waters are currently the busiest in the world for this as some 54 sand dredgers are operating here," Afyaman was quoted by Antara as saying.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Rokhmin Dahuri on Monday said nine impounded vessels accused of smuggling sand to Singapore would be released upon payment of bonds into court.

He said that the value set for the bonds could be up to Rp 2 trillion (US$250 million).

President Megawati Soekarnoputri has established a special team to help seek ways of limiting the detrimental effects of sand mining on the marine environment.

The team, which is led by Rokhmin, consists of the relevant ministers and top military officials.

The putting in place of a zoning system for sand mining in coastal and maritime areas is expected to help reduce the number of areas where sand is mined at present.