Planned EV Battery Plant Is a ‘Death Sentence’ for Uncontacted Indonesian Tribe
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