https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Indonesia already accounts for 55 per cent of the world’s nickel production, and that output is only expected to grow. But locals fear losing precious farmland over a commodity that might soon lose its lustre
Atop a hill overlooking Loeha Raya, a cluster of villages on the shores of Lake Towuti, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, all that can be seen is green. For kilometres around, the hills are covered in leafy pepper plants, roughly two metres high, growing in neat rows reminiscent of a vineyard, their tiny fruit slowly ripening and turning red, at which point thousands of workers will harvest them, laying the peppercorns out to dry in the hot Southeast Asian sun.
Down at the lakeside, where lumbering ferries dock from the town of Sorowako, across the water, the idyllic calm of the pepper fields is nowhere to be found, however. Large posters greet arrivals with angry slogans: “Reject mining,” “Save our village” and “Defend agricultural land!”