NICKEL MINERS ACCUSED OF CLEARING FORESTS
Report claims mining linked to Chinese EV battery makers is causing severe environmental damage and endangering indigenous livelihoods
A new report alleges that miners in Indonesia’s nickel hub of Sulawesi, some tied to Chinese electric vehicles battery manufacturers, cleared protected forests at a rapid rate, causing environmental destruction and threatening the ancient way of life of the indigenous Bajau people, the world’s last “sea nomads”.
“Nickel mining is dirty, that’s just how it is, but there are ways to do it more responsibly,” said Amanda Hurowitz, senior director of forest commodities at Mighty Earth, the Washington-based global environmental advocacy group that released the report.
“Indonesia has solved seemingly intractable problems like deforestation in the palm oil [industry]. I really think Indonesia can also clean up its nickel supply chain, if it has the political will to do so,” Hurowitz said.
The report estimated that nickel miners had cleared nearly 80,000 hectares of forest in Indonesia as of December, with another 500,000 hectares within the country’s nickel concessions at risk of deforestation.
Last year, nickel miners cleared 6,115 hectares of forest, double the area of forests cleared in 2022 and 2021, indicating that “nickel related deforestation may be accelerating compared to previous years”, the report said, citing data from the watchdog group Radar for Detecting Deforestation.
Mighty Earth urged Indonesia’s incoming president, Prabowo Subianto, to clean up the country’s electric vehicle (EV) supply chain by adopting a set of international standards and enforcing existing forestry laws on its mining partners, including Chinese firms. EV manufacturers should also audit supply chains “all the way back to the mines where the nickel in their batteries originates”, the group said.
Environmental damage and labour rights violations have been widely documented in nickel mines and refineries across Indonesia. In January, a report by California-based Climate Rights International also alleged China-backed nickel plants had caused “significant” environmental destruction and were an existential threat to indigenous peoples on the island of Halmahera in Maluku province.
“The first thing to remember is, while China may not be an environment leader, it also doesn’t want to be an environmental laggard. We just have to look at China as a complicated partner, but one that is interested in what the international community thinks,” Hurowitz said during the webinar launching the report.
Robert Blake, former US ambassador to Indonesia and current senior director at trade consultant McLarty Associates, said the Indonesia government “should not be shy about enforcing stronger environmental and labour standards on Chinese projects”.
“China is gradually improving its environmental policies. It’s come under a lot of criticism for supporting fossil fuel development in the Belt and Road Initiative. You’re seeing more support now for renewable energy projects,” Blake said during the webinar.
“I sometimes worry that our Indonesian friends worry if they impose environmental and labour standards the Chinese will go away. The Chinese are not going to go away. They need these projects for their own industries.”
The green EV supply chain would also benefit Indonesia as more investors, particularly from the US and Europe, would look to invest in the country, Blake said.
The Mighty Earth report documents how illegal deforestation was undertaken to make way for nickel concessions on the small island of Kabaena, off Sulawesi.
It found that at least 17 hectares of areas zoned as Protection Forests, which were established to maintain biodiversity and ecosystems on the island, had been illegally deforested and at least 841 hectares of Production Forest, in which forestry uses are allowed, were lost to miners that did not have permits to clear the land.
In six villages on the island, which is home to the Bajau people, researchers found that “brown cloudy water in the ocean near the villages” forced the tribe to “go much further offshore to reach fishing grounds” and they had to buy more fuel.
The Bajaus, known for their ability to stay underwater for up to 10 minutes on a single breath, now also find it hard to teach their children how to swim because of the contaminated water.
Researchers found villagers in Puununu and Baliara suffered from “itchiness, festering and blistering” skin due to muddy water around the island.
Among the top 10 nickel mines responsible for deforestation named in the report are Vale Indonesia, whose controlling shareholder is state-owned company Mind ID; state-owned miner Aneka Tambang; and Bintang Delapan Mineral, which is affiliated with Tsingshan, a Chinese stainless steel giant and EV battery materials producer.
Atina Rizqiana, a social anthropologist at Jakarta-based think tank the Center of Economic and Law Studies, said it was unlikely Indonesia would see more environmentally friendly policies under Prabowo. The former general said on the campaign trail that he would continue President Joko Widodo’s downstreaming policy, which bans the export of raw critical minerals such as nickel and bauxite.
“Unfortunately, several policies advocated by his campaign fail to reflect any intention to lead in an order that [promotes] democracy and environmentally friendly policies,” Atina said.