A GERMAN chemical giant has pulled out of a multibillion-dollar mining project in Indonesia following pressure from campaigners highlighting the plight of uncontacted people in the area.
BASF, one of the largest chemical producing companies in the world, was part of the $2.6 billion (£2bn) project on the Indonesian island of Halmahera alongside French mining firm Eramet.
The project, known as Sonic Bay, intended to refine nickel and cobalt mined at Weda Bay Nickel (WBN), the world’s biggest nickel mine, which campaigners have accused of destroying the rainforest homes of hundreds of indigenous people.
London-based charity Survival International organised its supporters to send more than 20,000 emails to BASF and the German authorities, warning that WBN’s mining project puts the survival of the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people at risk.
The Hongana Manyawa are one of the last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes in Indonesia and the arrival of the mining companies is “just the latest threat to the Hongana Manyawa and their land,” Survival International says on its website.
“In recent decades, Indonesian governments have repeatedly tried to force contact onto the Hongana Manyawa, with the aim of stopping their nomadic way of life and evicting them from their ancestral forest home.”
A recent video showing a Hongana Manyawa family approaching mineworkers in their camp and asking for food after their rainforest home was destroyed went viral, prompting Indonesian politicians to call for the protection of their land.
“This major announcement by BASF comes after sustained pressure from Survival and tens of thousands of our supporters, who have consistently said that the ‘Sonic Bay’ project would turbocharge nickel mining on Halmahera, and accelerate the destruction of the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa," Survival International’s director Caroline Pearce said today.
“BASF’s withdrawal means that they, at least, will not be complicit in the Hongana Manyawa’s destruction.
“But Eramet, and other companies, are still ripping up the rainforest and the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa simply won’t survive without it. They must stop now, for good, before it’s too late.”
Despite the scrapping of the refinery project, WBN is currently set to continue, with the nickel being destined for electric car batteries.
