Jakarta, August 16, 2026. Greenpeace Indonesia clarifies findings published in ‘Unprotected Paradise’ report about new nickel mining threats in Raja Ampat, West Papua. Greenpeace has made an error by saying that there are three nickel mining licenses in preparations with operations plan in eastern Waigeo, and one of the companies has also been trying to reinstate a coal mining license in Misool island. In fact, three companies have taken steps to secure mining licenses in Raja Ampat, two for nickel and one for coal.
We made a mistake when analysing administrative court decisions on two cases filed by PT Eka Kurnia Baru, one of the companies trying to operate mining in Raja Ampat, against the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM). PT EKB filed two lawsuits against Energy Ministry at the same time frame, defending its licenses on two commodities: nickel and coal.
Our research mentioned that PT EKB won its case on nickel mining, but lost in its coal license lawsuit. We would like to clarify this piece of information as PT EKB won its coal case, but lost in the nickel case. In its coal license case, PT EKB won at the administrative court (PTUN). The higher court and the Supreme Court backed this decision, causing the Energy Ministry losses in its appeal and re-examination requests.
Meanwhile in the nickel case, PT EKB won the case at the first and higher courts, but lost at the cassation process. It requested a motion to reconsider to the Supreme Court, but the appeal was rejected. We explained the administrative court result, but missed to mention the Supreme Court decision on the re-examination request.
“We apologize to the public for the error that we made in our report. While it is true that Raja Ampat is still under threats from nickel mining, there was a slight inaccuracy in the details that we outlined. We appreciate the reader who reached out to us after spotting the error, and we hope that this correction reflects our accountability,” said Arie Rompas, Greenpeace Indonesia’s forest campaign team leader.
Greenpeace has uploaded the revised version of the ‘Unprotected Paradise’ report.
