ABSTRACT
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) project on Technical Assistance for Improvement of Mining Environmental Policy and Enforcement in Indonesia brought together government technical agencies in an effort to reduce the environmental impact of surface mining. What lessons were learned from this attempt to develop institutional capacity for reformulation and implementation of mining environmental policy through bilateral technical assistance? Technical assistance projects and science and technology exchanges are effective but little studied instruments of foreign policy which may be utilized to maintain or improve international relations between two or more countries. Increasing the effectiveness of cooperation between related government agencies concerned with mining and environmental policy in Indonesia was an objective of the OSM project. Using honoraria as a form of compensation for government employees may impede environmentally sound sustainable development. Bilateral or multilateral technical assistance in these areas will facilitate continued improvement of mining environmental policy in a decentralized governance structure.
