Environment

When the deity meditates…

In ancient Indonesian manuscripts, a disaster is sometimes not a disaster, but a message from the deity.

Wake up! Flood!

A Dutch anthropologist lived in a Jakarta riverside slum to learn how residents there cope with constant flooding

Timotius and Freeport

Elite politics and Freeport Indonesia’s non-compliance continue to deny Timotius Kambu his owed wages

Being young, female and poor

Young women farmers in Java and Flores find themselves on the lower rungs of multiple ladders

Photo essay: Hope in the face of disaster

Palu after the tsunami

Islam-inspired renewable energy

A collaboration between a teacher and farmers in Central Java is unlocking the potential of an indigenous biofuel source

Mining – who benefits?

Two carts rest on a mining site path. The photo is taken at an angle where the path appears to be going down from left to right.

Mining law changes in decentralising Indonesia raises new challenges and opportunities for local communities

The life and death of Indonesia’s mineral export ban

President Joko Widodo speaks at a podium, with a red banner as a backdrop.

The Jokowi government’s policy shift contributes to pervasive regulatory ambiguity in Indonesia’s mining sector

Stories from Sulawesi

An elderly woman stands in a grass field in a rural dwelling, looking to the side.

The 2009 mining law and the community benefit in Sulawesi

Resource nationalism as imperialism

A worker at a mining site points to the low-hanging clouds.

Foreign investment in large-scale mining has encountered serious obstacles

Has resource extraction reduced poverty?

A child worker pushes a wheelbarrow of harvest along in an oil palm plantation.

The benefits of more concentrated natural resources are less likely to be spread

Mining and equitable development

A car drives along a concrete road among tall crop fields.

Mining dominates East Luwu GDP but development of agriculture underpins equitable development

Small-scale mining in Central Kalimantan

A car zooms by on a road in a barren landscape.

After reformasi, Kereng Pangi, Kalimantan became the site of a gold rush

Mining the land, mining people

A mining base, with a pipe running across the foreground and some wooden structures.

Irrespective of location or commodity, peasants now compete with multinational mining companies on the mineral-rich tracts of Indonesia

Multiplier effects on the Bombana goldfields

A photo of the front of a Toyota dealership.

Benefits ripple outwards but local government struggles to regulate the process

Church-based resistance to mining in Manggarai

In a forest clearing, a group of villagers surround a priest, listening to his sermon.

Resistance is a way of defending local people’s rights in dealing with mining policy

Mining mercury in an Indonesian periphery

A child worker in a squatting position, burning mercury amalgam while smoking a cigarette.

Improved market chain monitoring and recognition of sociocultural dynamics are important for central mercury control

Community mining in West Timor

A group of miners stand near a community manganese mine, South Central Timor.

Small-scale manganese mining supports livelihood diversity

Fighting apathy, seeking engagement

Students have mixed feelings about a mandatory community service program at Indonesian universities

Comes with the territory

A sign next to a dirt road reads in Indonesian, ‘Welcome to the territory of the Kiyu customary forest under Constitutional Court Decree No. 35/PUU-X/2012. THIS IS OUR CUSTOMARY FOREST, NOT STATE FOREST.’

Compromises must be made in the quest for indigeneity among the Dayak Meratus

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A selection of stories from the Indonesian classics and modern writers, periodically published free for Inside Indonesia readers, courtesy of Lontar.