SOUTH WASILE, Indonesia — Rudy said South Wasile district police officers visited his home with PT Arumba Jaya Perkasa staff three times in June to recommend he take the company’s 20,000 rupiah offer, around $1.22, per square meter of his coconut grove.

“But I didn’t want to do that,” Rudy, whose name has been changed, told Mongabay Indonesia.

The officer, Rudy said, prohibited recording the interaction in Loleba village here on Halmahera, a once-remote island in North Maluku province that today is the site of a nickel mining boom to feed the global energy transition.

In a statement to Mongabay Indonesia, South Wasile district police denied any involvement in whether local residents should agree to contracts of sale.

The 20-year mining permit held by PT Arumba Jaya Perkasa covers 1,818 hectares (4,492 acres) of forest and community plantations in the interior of Loleba village, according to Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. It is just one of “hundreds of extractive mining company concessions” operating in North Maluku province, according to Transparency International, a nonprofit.

PT Arumba Jaya Perkasa is paving a dedicated haulage road and building a small harbor in the inlet piercing Halmahera Island from the northeast.

Swaths of coconut and nutmeg groves planted long ago by families in Loleba, Saramaake and Talaga Jaya villages are being razed for mining infrastructure.

In Loleba village, many farmers resisted the land use change while feeling squeezed by below-market-value offers for land, which were based on valuations assessed by the local government more than a decade earlier. At least 10 landowners have so far declined to relinquish their coconut trees, local people said.

Rudy said he was told his land of around 60 coconut palms was worth just 84 million rupiah, slightly more than $5,000.

But interviewees told Mongabay Indonesia that these one-off sale payments did not reflect the recurring revenues of around 18,000 rupiah ($1.10) per kilo (2.2 pounds) from multiple coconut harvests per year, which parents treat as livelihood, and as asset to pass on to children.

The miners have branded red paint onto a line of trees across Klemengs Papua’s growing area to demarcate the border with the haulage road. It is Klemengs’ only source of income and only bequest to his children.

“Whatever the price is, I’m not giving it to them,” Klemengs said. “The company hasn’t even offered a price yet — I just heard from a neighbor they’re offering 20,000 rupiah.”

Hibor Nalande, a Loleba resident, said agreeing to a sale of his 4-hectare (9.9-acre) coconut grove was a road to ruin for his family.

A single harvest of 4 tons of coconut processed into copra produced turnover of 72 million rupiah ($4,400). After deducting labor and logistics costs, Hibor would expect to book revenue of 288 million rupiah ($17,500) per year from four healthy harvests, an amount around eight times the minimum wage set by the local government.

At the price of 20,000 rupiah per square meter, the land valuation forced on Hibor represents a 36% annual yield, an implausible rate of return. The lump sum payment of around 800 million rupiah ($49,000) would be reached after less than three years of earnings from farming the land.

“It’s good for the young to have these jobs in the mines,” Hibor said at his home in late June. “But what about us older people?”

Seized, cleared, excavated

Extensive anecdotal testimony told to Mongabay Indonesia reporters on Halmahera Island suggests a large number of families have faced economic crisis following resettlement required by the mining industry.

Most nickel ore mined on Halmahera Island — and the wider North Maluku province — is refined at the Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) on the coast around 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of the farmers locked in land conflict with PT Arumba Jaya Perkasa.

Research published in 2024 by Transparency International recorded numerous instances of forcible displacement for the IWIP site in Weda Bay.

Climate Rights International, a nonprofit, documented numerous cases of land seizures by IWIP, established in 2018 and operated today by Chinese mining conglomerates Huayou, Tsingshan and Zhenshi.

Data on the strategic impact of Indonesia’s mining expansion to support the global energy transition are mixed. A poverty gap survey published by Indonesia’s statistics agency showed that from 2019-24, poverty severity worsened in Central Halmahera district, the site of the Weda Bay Industrial Estate, but improved in East Halmahera over the same period.

In February and July this year, Mongabay reports showed that in the village nearest the giant smelting estate, respiratory disease diagnoses in the village soared from 434 cases in 2020 to 10,579 cases in 2023 — and that blood mercury levels exceeded unsafe thresholds in 22 out of 46 people tested.

“Land belonging to communities living near IWIP has been seized, cleared or excavated by nickel companies and developers without consent,” said Mubalik Tomagola, advocacy lead for the Indonesia Forum for the Environment (Walhi) in North Maluku province, Indonesia’s largest environmental nonprofit.

Hernemus Takuling, who told Mongabay Indonesia for a February report that even just walking out of his house in Lelilef Sawai, a neighboring village to the Weda Bay smelting estate, required wearing a face mask.

Interviewees living in this village also told Mongabay that some land had been appropriated to the company without any compulsory acquisition compensation.

Now the mining industry plans to widen the Kobe River by around 50 meters (164 feet) to enable mining barges access farther inland.

“In my opinion, that’s encroachment,” Hernemus told Mongabay.

Iqbal Musa, a resident of nearby Lelilef Waibulen village, said he lost access to 9,000 m2 (about 97,000 ft2 of land on which he harvested hundreds of coconut trees to widen the river.

“There was no talk of compensation or anything,” Iqbal said.

Dated valuations

PT Arumba Jaya Perkasa field manager Alfian said land value was determined by a decree enacted in 2012 by the elected head of East Halmahera district (the company received its operating permit in 2010, according to the mining ministry.)

“We have consulted with the relevant agencies before determining the compensation value,” Alfian told Mongabay on July 25.

That 2012 regulation indicated farmers with official land deeds were due 45,000 rupiah ($2.75) per square meter. Those without formal claims to tenure, a common problem throughout Indonesia, would be entitled to lower eminent domain payments.

Rudy said the company’s offer for land did not take into account any of the productive trees from which he earned a living.

“The police came and ordered me to take the money,” he said.

In response, Fachry Bamatraf, the South Wasile Police chief, said he had ordered police personnel only to escort heavy machinery in addition to providing security to staff conducting mining surveying work within the forest.

“We immediately checked and went down to investigate,” Fachry told Mongabay on July 14. “There were no written or unwritten orders, let alone ordering members to conduct negotiations, as that’s beyond our purview!”

Fachry said his office would act against any police personnel found to be operating outside of standard procedures.

“I stress and have ordered don’t attempt or play around doing anything outside of the procedures,” Fachry said in a text message. “I will take firm action!”

Banner image: A Halmahera woman peeling coconuts for copra. Image by Achmad Rizki Muazam/Mongabay Indonesia.

This story was first published here in Indonesian on Aug. 5, 2025.

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