Halmahera in North Maluku is one of the regions experiencing significant social and environmental changes due to the massive influx of extractive industries into the region.
Communities are reacting and coordinating themselves through various organisations, institutions, and movements trying to stem the tide of environmental and social destruction in Halmahera, North Maluku, particularly in the area of Sagea.
Sulastri Mahmud is a female activist with Save Sagea, a community group that seeks to raise awareness about the social changes occurring in communities due to the arrival of extractive industries in Halmahera and North Maluku in general.
She explained that Save Sagea was first formed in 2002, but its roots date back to a student organisation called Gemuruh.
"The underlying issue relates to the increasing number of mining permits issued, which threaten the living space of the Halmahera people," she said, explaining the rationale for Save Sagea's formation.
Sulastri remembers that mining began entering the area around 2007, when she was still in elementary school. Year after year, more mining companies arrived, and environmental damage continued. Amidst this destruction, the community's social life began to change. The number of farmers and fishermen began to decline. They sold their land and started new businesses, such as renting out boarding houses. Many others had no source of income and were selling their land bit by bit to support themselves.
A consumerist lifestyle is eradicating traditions connected to forests and the sea. Farming is increasingly being abandoned.
Polluted rivers are also alienating residents from the water. Once, when rivers flowed with clear water, they were a centre of life — people washed their clothes, fetched clean water and fished in the riverbed. Now, polluted, the rivers are abandoned, and fish and shellfish have disappeared.
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