November 27, 2025
An Indigenous man who was born
uncontacted in the Indonesian rainforest has traveled to
Europe for the first time to lobby French mining giant
Eramet over its destruction of his people’s
land.
Ngigoro is a member of the Hongana
Manyawa people of Halmahera Island. Extensive nickel
mining is rapidly destroying his people’s rainforest –
around 500 other members of the tribe are uncontacted and
desperately trying to avoid the bulldozers.
Ngigoro
and protesters from Survival International and Canopée
demonstrated today outside the Eramet HQ – the company
operates the world’s biggest nickel mine, on Hongana
Manyawa land. The mine is part of an Indonesian government
project aimed at producing nickel for electric car
batteries.
Weda Bay Nickel, a company part-owned by
Eramet, has by far the largest mining concession on the
island and more than three-quarters of that concession
overlaps with the territories of uncontacted Hongana Manyawa
people.
Eramet have publicly denied the existence of
uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people within their concession,
despite the fact that leaked reports commissioned by the
company reveal they have known about their presence since at
least 2013.
Ngigoro said today: “I have come all the
way to France to tell Eramet and the French government that
they must stop the mining in the Hongana Manyawa’s forest.
If they don’t stop the mining, my uncontacted relatives
will die. The companies are getting rich from our deaths.
When the world finds out that they are stealing our land,
the companies will feel shame.”
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Survival
International Director Caroline Pearce said today: “To
Eramet, this might look like an exciting and profitable
venture – but to the Indigenous Hongana Manyawa, it’s the
destruction of their forest home, and a death sentence for
those who are uncontacted. That’s why Ngigoro has traveled
thousands of miles from his island home to Europe: to tell
Eramet that this catastrophe facing his people is far more
important than their bottom line.
“Like many
Indigenous peoples, the Hongana Manyawa are true
environmentalists, stewarding and protecting their forest
for thousands of years. Like many others, they are now under
attack by extractive industries plundering their land. The
fact that this is being done to advance a supposedly
sustainable industry – electric cars – is a bitter irony
that does nothing to lessen the appalling danger to the
Hongana Manyawa.”
The risk to the survival of the
uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people of Halmahera Island,
Indonesia, is just one of the cases explored in Survival’s
new landmark report: Uncontacted
Indigenous Peoples: at the edge of
survival.
