Across resource-rich regions, weak governance and limited transparency determine who profits from extraction and who bears the environmental and social costs.
In Halmahera, Indonesia, nickel mining is expanding rapidly to meet global demand for electric-vehicle batteries. Ironically, gaps in oversight allow these projects to consume vast tracts of forest with little accountability — often sidelining local and Indigenous communities whose livelihoods depend on the land.
A similar pattern is unfolding in the Brazilian Amazon. There, financial markets and agribusiness giants are quietly using complex investment funds to expand into protected forests.
Investigative reporting supported by the Pulitzer Center reveals how these investments often proceed with little oversight, enabling deforestation under the guise of legal economic activity. Indigenous communities are particularly affected; their customary land rights are often overlooked in favour of corporate concessions, disrupting livelihoods and eroding cultural heritage.
This Conversation Corner, hosted by The Conversation Indonesia in collaboration with Pulitzer Center, brings together academic expert Aidy Halimanjaya from Dala Institute for Environment and Society and investigative journalists Bruna Bronoski, Achmad Rizki Muazam, and Irfan Maulana. to discuss how weak transparency enables harmful extraction in the Amazon and Halmahera.
The dialogue bridges frontline reporting and research-based analysis to examine the policy implications of extractive industries in resource-rich regions.
We encourage you to participate in the Conversation Corner discussion, “The lungs of the world for sale, limited stock!: the dirty business trail destroying indigenous homes and forests in the Amazon & Halmahera”, on ZOOM and YouTube Live.
Date & Time: February 13, 2026, via Zoom, 19:00 – 21:00
Register here: bit.ly/CCPulitzerEps3
“Call for Write-Ups: Resource Extraction and the Costs of Weak Transparency”
Through Call for Write-Ups: Resource Extraction and the Costs of Weak Transparency, Pulitzer Center and The Conversation Indonesia invite researchers and academics to explore these issues further. Contributions should connect investigative findings with relevant research, data or public policy. We want to help audiences understand how governance – or the lack of it – shapes outcomes for communities on the frontlines.
What can you write?
We are looking for short reflections, critiques, or analytical pieces that:
- link the featured journalistic reports to research, data or public policy
- offer evidence-based insight into how gaps in governance shape environmental protection and social equity
- examine the social, ecological or economic consequences of extraction on local and Indigenous populations.
Technical guidelines
- The article must reflect your own thinking in response to the selected journalistic work
- length: 800 words.
- written in English in an accessible, opinion-writing style.
Reference Report
Irfan Maulana & Achmad Rizki Muazam
Report: Halmahera Forest Guardians Displaced by Nickel Industry.
Use this report as a key reference. It provides a vivid case study of how rapid nickel mining is reshaping forests and communities, offering a strong foundation for deeper analysis on the social, ecological, and governance impacts of resource extraction.
Bruna Bronoski
Report: Financial Market: A Black Box Over Green Areas
Use this report to examine how complex financial mechanisms drive expansion into protected forests, highlighting issues of transparency, accountability, and the legal frameworks that enable environmental harm.
Rewards
Publication on The Conversation Indonesia for one best write-up selected from three TCID x Pulitzer Center webinar episodes (Q1 2026).
Cash prize of Rp 5,000,000 for the best piece.
Deadline & submission
Submission deadline: 13 March 2026 Submit your write-up via: bit.ly/WriteUp-TnG
Your voice can help shift the narrative and illuminate the real human and environmental cost of weak governance and limited transparency. Send in your write-up, contribute your expertise, and help make visible the costs borne by forests and communities.
Contact Person:
Binar Lestari – SEA Education Coordinator, Pulitzer Center Email: binar.lestari@gmail.com
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
