How an electric vehicle competition threatens sea paradise

Star’s images captured by a drone from eco -friendly campaigns and shared with the BBC seem to show how nickel yields are stripped and contaminated in one of the most biodiversary sea habitats on Earth.

Raja Ampat Archipelago – a group of small islands in southwestern Papua province in Indonesia – is called the Amazon of the Seas.

But nickel yield – an ingredient in the batteries of electric vehicles and stainless steel – has increased there in recent years, according to the organization Global witnessS

In the course of the campaigns, the Indonesia government has canceled permits for four out of five mining companies operating in the region this week.

In Statement published onlineThe Ministry of the Environment says: “The biodiversity of Raja Ampat is a world heritage that must be protected.

“We pay great attention to the mining activities that are happening in the area.”

But photos – taken by A global witness as part of an investigation – It seems that environmental damage has already been done.

Air images show loss of forests and leakage of sediment in waters that are home to Biodiverse coral reefs.

The global witness told the BBC that the use of land for the extraction of many small islands in the archipelago increased by 500 hectares – equivalent to about 700 football fields – between 2020 and 2024.

Some environmentalists, including the Greenpeace Organizationare concerned that the government’s decision can be annulled by mining companies.

And a company that operates on GAG, which has particularly rich nickel deposits, is allowed to continue its operations. The government said it would order “the restoration of the environmental impacts that occur” there.

The coral reef and ecologist D -R Mark Erdman told the BBC News that he was “explosive and so happy” about the government’s decision to cancel the yield permissions.

“This is the global epicenter of marine biodiversity,” he told the BBC News.

Dr. Erdman has been working in Raja Ampat for more than two decades and helped to create a network of marine protected areas there. It is one of the founders of a shark recharge project called Reshark based in the region.

He added: “It was a voice of indignation from the Indonesian people, which made the government pay attention.”

But this environmental dispute is an example of how the demand for metals needed to power the battery technology – for electric cars and other sources of low carbon energy – can damage the environment.

Indonesia now represents more than half of the nickel production in the world, according to Report last year from the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

And while the beauty and biodiversity of Ampat Raja paid attention to the mining there, the yield is also related to environmental damage elsewhere.

A study of 2024 by Forest Watch Indonesia Find a connection between the loss of forests related to mining and increased local floods and landslides.

Increasing the demand for so -called critical minerals forms economic solutions around the world. It was the driving force of President Trump’s recent executive order to jump the extraction of metal nodes from the deep sea in international waters. It’s A move that China called illegalS

Dr. Erdman pointed out that balancing economic growth with environmental protection is a special dilemma for Indonesia. “There is a lot of nickel – in one way or another, some of it will get out of the ground,” he said.

Dr. Michaela Guo Ing Lo, of the Direll (DICE) Institute for Conservation and Ecology and the University of Kent A study in 2024 of the impact of yield on local communities in Sulawesi. The Grand Indonesian island has the greater part of the country’s nickel deposits.

The study showed that mining activity slightly reduces poverty, but that there is a significant “deterioration in environmental welfare”, including increased local water and air pollution.

“Indonesia is positioned globally in the Nickel market,” Dr. Lo told BBC News. “But it is important not to forget what is happening locally.”

I have a driver, an environmental campaign from an organization called Jatam based in Jakarta, told the BBC News: “They say the nickel is a solution to the climate crisis. But this causes the deforestation and destruction of agricultural land.”

He also pointed out to the BBC that the low coastal areas where some nickel deposits were found are some of the places that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including increase in sea level.

Dr. Erdman commented: “The nickel dilemma is terrible.

“Extraction will always be environmentally friendly and we are all inclined to think that electrification is a good idea. But what are the acceptable damage we are willing to see?”

The BBC contacted the Indonesia government for comment, but did not receive an answer.