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A Nickel Rush Threatens Indonesia’s Last Nomadic Tribes and Its Forests, Fishermen and Farmers
The country holds nearly half of the world’s known deposits of a metal critical to the energy transition, but digging and smelting it is leading to deforestation, flooding and contamination.
Text and photos by Garry Lotulung
HALMAHERA ISLAND, Indonesia—Deep in the backcountry here, Sumean Gebe, 42, lives with Bede Yuli, 39, and his two children in the forest around Dodaga Village, about four hours by road from the capital of North Maluku Province. Every so often, they’ll move to a different forest.