Nickel mining has been expanding in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat, fuelled by the world’s demand for EV batteries – but Indigenous communities are campaigning to protect their home and its critical ecosystem
He hangs in the clear water, studying the blue below. Then he tilts his body forward, reaching down and kicking steadily, long spear before him. Soon, his white fins are just faint flicking shapes in the deep. Lindert Mambrasar, freediver and fisherman, does this again and again. An hour later, one glistening fish and then two are pulled off the tip of his spear by his friends waiting in the boat. It is more than enough for supper tonight.
Here, close to the shore of the island of Manyaifun and its sister island Batang Pele in the Raja Ampat archipelago, West Papua, the water is clean and the fish easy to spot. These thriving reefs have been called the “crown jewel” of the Coral Triangle – the name scientists have given this area of Southeast Asian seas that sustain the richest marine ecosystem in the world.
Powerful currents and trade winds form where the eastern Indian ocean meets the western Pacific. They nurture manta rays, green and hawksbill turtles, dugongs, dolphins, sharks and more species of coral and coral reef fish than anywhere else on Earth. Scattered around 4.6 million hectares, Raja Ampat was awarded UNESCO ‘Geopark’ status in 2023 to celebrate and support its unique geology and culture. A network of marine protected areas cover more than 2 million hectares of its waters. Its landscape appears on the country’s highest-value 100,000 rupiah note.
For the rest of this article: https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/transition-minerals/indonesias-amazon-of-the-seas-threatened-by-ev-nickel-rush/