On Sunday, June 29, Indonesia will break ground on a $6 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant on Halmahera, the largest of the Maluku islands. The facility will mine the island’s abundant nickel reserves and manufacture batteries on-site to reduce production costs in Indonesia, but a watchdog warns it could decimate an uncontacted tribe.
The Hongana Manyawa—whose name means “people of the forest” in their language—are one of the last nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples in Indonesia, according to Survival International. Some 3,500 of them live within Halmahera’s rainforest, and roughly 500 remain uncontacted. Over the last several years, Indonesia’s booming nickel-mining industry has deforested more than 13,000 acres (5,000 hectares) of Halmahera’s tropical forests, destroying the Hongana Manyawa’s homeland. This country is now the world’s largest nickel producer, and its latest money grab poses a grave threat to the Hongana Manyawa, advocacy groups warn.
“This announcement is a death sentence for the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa,” said Caroline Pearce, head of Survival International, in a statement. “Their home—the land that is theirs under international law—is being brazenly seized and destroyed to cater to global industries and global consumption.”
“Nickel and other mega-projects are often launched under the banner of green development but leave behind a trail of social and environmental harm,” said Brad Adams, Executive Director at Climate Rights International, in a statement. “Communities are repressed, forests are cleared, and pollution goes unaddressed with impunity. This is a chance for the Prabowo government to show that it has learned from those failures.”
The new plant, financially backed by China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL), will integrate multiple components of EV battery production. Mining operations, smelting, nickel extraction, and production of precursors and cathodes will all take place on-site, according to the Indonesian news agency ANTARA. The project is one of 18 downstream industrial projects—valued at nearly $45 billion—that will break ground in Indonesia, ANTARA reports.
According to a 2024 Survival International report, at least 19 mining companies are operating on the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa’s land, including the largest and second-largest nickel mines in the world. Most of these facilities are mining nickel, and together, they span about 40% of the uncontacted people’s territory. The Halmahera nickel rush is part of the Indonesian government’s efforts to feed the global nickel demand for EV batteries. As of last year, the country accounted for 51% of the world’s nickel mine production, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Scrutiny from environmentalists recently drove Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to cancel four nickel mining permits on the neighboring islands of Raja Ampat. “The President has a special concern to ensure Raja Ampat remains a world-class tourist attraction and protect its sustainability,” Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told reporters earlier this month. In 2024, more than 30,000 tourists visited these islands, contributing roughly $9.25 million to locally generated revenue, according to The Jakarta Post. The same can’t be said for Halmahera, which lacks sufficient infrastructure to support tourism.
Still, advocates hope that the Indonesian government will take similar steps to protect Halmahera and its people. “The Indonesian government has shown it’s prepared to cancel nickel mining to save tourism; it must now also do so to stop an appalling human rights atrocity,” Pearce said. “By acting now and establishing a no-go zone for mining on the territory of the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people, the government can prevent their annihilation.”
This tribe isn’t alone. A 2022 study found that 54% of critical mineral mining projects for essential components, like the nickel used in EV batteries, are located on or near indigenous lands. Of those projects, 29% impact lands that indigenous peoples manage or conserve. While the Western world may see the EV industry as a climate solution, its impact on rainforests—and the people that call them home—threatens to outweigh its benefits.
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