"From Forests to Electric Vehicles: Quantifying and Addressing the Environmental Toll of Indonesian Nickel", 1 May 2024

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Mighty Earth investigated the 329 nickel concessions that are acknowledged by Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources as the basis for this report, and we have highlighted the 25 nickel concessions in which the highest amounts of deforestation are taking place. We also examined some of the human and environmental impacts of nickel mining operations on a small island off the coast of Sulawesi.

• Conservatively, Indonesia’s nickel mines have cleared more than 75,000 hectares of forest to extract nickel.
• More than half a million additional hectares of Indonesian forest are within nickel concessions, putting them at risk for deforestation.
• The rate of deforestation is likely accelerating; RADD (radar) alerts show more than twice as much forest clearance in 2023 than in 2020.
• Of the 25 concessions we looked at in detail, six are 75% High Carbon Stock (HCS) forest or higher meaning these concessions contain significant amounts of intact forests. Fourteen are about 50% or less High Carbon Stock Forest meaning that they main contain substantial amounts of degraded land.
• Six of the 25 concessions contain forests classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as “Key Biodiversity Areas,” important habitats for critical species protection and unique ecosystems.
• The investigation uncovered potential illegality in some of these concessions.
  • At least three of these concessions have cleared Protection Forests (which are setaside to protect life and ecosystems) without the prior exemptions that would have allowed them to do so legally.
  • More than a quarter of the mines examined have strip-mined within 100 meters of the ocean, which is, at best, a legally contested practice.
  • Five of the top 25 deforesting nickel mines have cleared Production Forests (which are set aside for forestry uses) without the legally required Borrow and Use Permit (more recently known as a Forest Area Use Permit). 2,654 hectares of production forest have been illegally cleared by these mines.
• A survey and photo documentation of Kabaena island found that nickel mining companies have illegally cleared Protection Forests and Production Forests and did not seek the FPIC (Free, Prior and Informed Consent) of local communities. Most inhabitants of these communities, many of whom are Bajau seafarers, have experienced health, environmental, and economic impacts from mining-contaminated freshwater and seawater, and have not been adequately compensated.

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