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In 2025, I sat locked in a room in a private home as military officials camped on the front porch. A surveillance photo of me taken that morning was circulating on WhatsApp around Kawasi Village, where I was staying on Obi Island in Indonesia. I was visiting as a representative of Earthworks, along with colleagues from Indonesian environmental NGO WALHI.
When I heard that surveillance and harassment resulted in WALHI staff and journalists abandoning their attempted reporting trip to that same village this summer, I recognized a pattern.
The North Maluku branch of the Indonesian NGO WALHI has experienced an environment of increasing hostilities and intimidation related to their work to support and advocate with mining-impacted communities on Obi Island. I saw it first hand. Now reporters had seen it too.
Nickel mining transforms a fishing village
The story on Obi Island has global significance. Nickel mining is booming in Indonesia. The country’s annual nickel production in 2015 was 130,000 tons. In 2025, it was 2.6M tons. This island nation is now responsible for more than 60 percent of the world’s nickel production. Much of that nickel goes into batteries, including batteries for electric vehicles.
In 2010, Obi Island, known for its fishing and spice economy, became the site of a large nickel mining and processing operation owned by Harita Group. Since its opening, the operation has caused an explosion of environmental and social harms:
- environmental pollution,
- toxic and carcinogenic chemical leaks that affect drinking water,
- displacement of local residents,
- health issues,
- mine waste facilities that are at risk for catastrophic failure, and
- reports of threats and intimidation and harassment of people speaking out.
Accountability depends on information justice
Kawasi Village residents have called for more transparency around Harita’s operations. WALHI and the Indonesian Society of Environmental Journalists (SIEJ) point out that, “there can be no environmental justice without information justice.”
A transition to cleaner transportation needs to be built with minerals that are sourced responsibly, and operations on Obi Island are raising concerns. Buyers, consumers, human rights advocates, environmentalists, and others are starting to pay attention.
Communities need to be able to tell their stories without fear, and the media must be able to report those stories to the public.
Companies and governments around the world use fear and harassment to try to silence communities that are defending their rights in the face of mining operations. But at Earthworks, we know that people who are standing up for their families and their land and water are not easy to silence, and their voices must be heard in order to find lasting solutions.
Journalists cancel visit due to intimidation
Most recently, a group of journalists experienced intimidation and surveillance. Over the course of four days in June and July 2026, WALHI and SEIJ jointly organized a trip for five journalists to report about the situation on Obi Island.
The journalists who attended were from Konde, which focuses on women’s issues in Indonesia; Mongabay, an international environmental science publication; Project Multatuli, a collective focused on underreported populations and holding power accountable; Bahalo Project; and Tempo, one of the largest and best-known newspapers in Indonesia.
Obi Island is only reachable by boat, and the surveillance began while the group was on a ferry, en route to the island. Two people began following the group on board the ferry and asking questions about the purpose of their work and trip to Obi Island.
When the SIEJ and WALHI group arrived on Obi Island, the police chief said that they had entered without alerting local authorities and security officials. Residents of one of the towns on the island, Kawasi Village, had to come and help transport the group to safety.
A group from Eco Village, a village where Harita has relocated some residents impacted by their operations, also attempted to turn the reporters away at the port.
The journalists were forced to cancel their visit to the area and were unable to continue their reporting work.
Indonesian military surveillance targets Earthworks and WALHI
This is not the first time that civil society groups have faced intimidation and surveillance while visiting Obi Island for work regarding Harita Group’s operations and impacts.
In April 2025, during a visit with WALHI staff to Kawasi Village, I was surveilled and harassed by military security officials.
Within 12 hours of arriving on the ferry, my photo was circulating via WhatsApp messages. Military security contacted a colleague to let them know that they had my photo and to ask questions about the purpose and timing of my visit. Plainclothes military officials visited the home where I was staying with a local family. The officers camped out on the front porch for hours while I stayed locked away in my room.
The harassment continued while in transit leaving Obi Island. Plainclothes military officials turned up on a neighboring island as we switched boats. They began interrogating WALHI colleagues about me and our visit to Kawasi Village. I decided to spend the nearly 24-hour trip that remained inside a small cabin to avoid further harassment by the officials.
These tactics effectively limited Earthworks and WALHI’s ability to witness mining impacts on the village and surrounding areas and to speak with community members living near Harita’s operations.
Intimidation pattern raises concerns
Harita Group’s operations on Obi Island are currently undergoing an audit by the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance. IRMA offers independent assessments of whether or not specific industrial mines meet standards for responsible mining. Voluntary standards like IRMA can be a powerful way to improve mining companies’ practices. Everyone involved, including communities and NGO staff, needs to be able to engage in the process without fear.
Both incidents took place around the time when IRMA auditors were expected to be visiting the area. The 2025 incident occurred just days before the onsite audit. Currently, Harita is nearing the end of its optional corrective action period as part of this audit. That means another review of the operations by the audit team will take place in the coming months.
Earthworks reported these incidents to the audit team, highlighting concerns about residents’ ability to safely participate in the audit without fear of intimidation or retaliation, as well as the pattern of military security restricting access to Kawasi Village, the community most directly affected by Harita’s operations. In its July 2026 update, Harita states that “During and beyond the CAP process, communities, and other stakeholders may raise concerns at any time through our whistleblowing and public grievance channels, which allow anonymous or non-anonymous reporting, with each matter logged, reviewed, and tracked through to resolution.”
Effective corporate grievance mechanisms like Harita’s require trust that reports will result in action to address the issue and that retaliation will not result — or they require stakeholders to carefully weigh the risks to themselves and others. Now that my experience is part of a pattern, I decided to share this story publicly.
Earthworks and Indonesian NGOs call on officials uphold human rights and transparency
WALHI and SIEJ point out that Law 40 in Indonesia protects freedom of press and freedom from interference and Law 32 and the Indonesian Constitution protect the right to a healthy environment. Attempts to silence reporting on the impacts from mining operations on Obi Island are not in the spirit of the national laws upholding democratic institutions and good governance.
Community members, NGO experts, and reporters must be able to speak about the impacts of mining without harassment and fear. Their knowledge and insights are important for buyers, policymakers, and advocates. We need truth, not silence, to build a sustainable future that works for everyone.
Earthworks joins WALHI AND SIEJ’s call for Harita Group to uphold the principles of democracy, human rights, transparency, and freedom of press.