"Sulawesi islanders grieve land lost to nickel mine" 6 October 2022

WAWONII ISLAND, Indonesia — The coconut palm has been a source of food and identity for centuries among the people of Wawonii Island. In the local language wawo means above and ni’i is the word for coconut — Wawonii is an island crowned by coconuts.

“Now it has become a mine,” said Abdul Latif, a farmer born here in Roko-Roko village. “Wawonii should just be renamed.”

Like many areas of Indonesia’s nickel-rich Sulawesi region, Wawonii is caught in the tension between international demand for green energy and the need to preserve landscapes. Indonesia accounts for both some of the world’s largest reserves of nickel and its third-largest tropical forests.

Beneath this island of at least 70 bird species and around 1,000 distinct plants lies a giant reserve of nickel, which is needed in the batteries powering electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies.

Nickel mining company PT Gema Kreasi Perdana (GKP), a subsidiary of the Harita Group, holds a concession covering about 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) by Abdul’s farmland in Roko-Roko village. Around 700 hectares (1,730 acres) of the 2018 concession is covered by a so-called borrow-to-use forest permit (IPPKH), in which the Ministry of Environment and Forestry authorizes conversion of state forests for development projects.

Many in Wawonii agitated against the company when it first arrived here. Family divisions emerged as those who wanted their ancestral land to remain untouched clashed with relatives seeing merit in the development.

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Company excavators started work at night, uprooting cacao and nutmeg trees that had sustained their families’ livelihoods.

The next morning, the farmers requested the company stop the land clearing. In the ensuing confrontation, some Roko-Roko farmers prevented 10 company workers from leaving. Police stepped in and released the men later in the evening.

The company reported 21 residents of Roko-Roko to the police for kidnapping and obstruction, charges laid out in Indonesia’s criminal code and a law on mining.

In turn, Roko-Roko residents reported the company to the police, but they received no response. Instead, armed police patrolled the streets as protesting farmers hid in their homes.

Following that initial flashpoint, the company paused work and tensions faded to quiet resentment. But earlier this year, the heavy equipment returned, and in February police arrested protesting farmers La Dani and Hastoma.

Bambang Murtiyoso, a communications official for GKP, did not respond to requests to comment on the company’s relationship with the community. A GKP legal counsel, Marlion, said conditions at the village were “safe and conducive.”

“We do not encroach,” Marlion said. “The truth is that we traverse and clear land that we have acquired — [we compensate] for the plants, which is agreed by the community and the company.”

Marlion did not provide details on the cash formula paid to affected residents for lost earnings and land.

But residents of Roko-Roko told Mongabay the payments ranged from 400,000 rupiah ($26) per clove tree to 900,000 rupiah ($59) for a coconut palm. However, many said they had yet to receive compensation for the loss of land on which the trees grew.

“Do they have a conscience, a heart?” said Ratna, a Roko-Roko farmer who lost land to the mine. “They think the land has no value — it’s the most important thing.”