In 2021, when a mining company began setting up camp in the iron-sand-rich Indonesian coastal village of Pasar Seluma with plans to start operations, the local women agreed that they’d be leading the protests this time around.
Incidents from about a decade ago were still fresh in the village’s collective memory. Back then, men led protests against a different iron-sand mining company that ended in the arrest of six men, who were later found guilty of damaging property and other charges. Iron-sand originates in volcanic deposits and is rich in iron ore.
Even though the conflict in 2010 stopped all mining activities in the village — which is on the southwest coast of the island of Sumatra — for years, the arrival of a new company, PT Faminglevto Bakti Abadi, signaled to the community that they had to come up with a new strategy to oppose the mining.
Over the years, villagers have witnessed the impacts of mining, especially how it threatens the local population of saltwater mussels, which has for generations been one of their main sources of income.
More than 100 women in Pasar Seluma are involved in the village’s movement against mining. Their work is part of a collective effort to protect their home, which is one of 53 villages in the province of Bengkulu classified as highly vulnerable to tsunamis by the country’s disaster mitigation agency. Indonesia is no stranger to natural disasters like tsunamis; many of its islands lie on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where 80 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur.
The iron-sand mining will disturb the balance of nature in Pasar Seluma, said Dodi Faisal, head of advocacy for the nonprofit Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) in Bengkulu. It can cause flooding and habitat loss for birds and sea creatures.
“This mine has the potential to threaten the people’s livelihoods, especially the fishermen and women’s,” he said.
Harvesting saltwater mussels is not just an important part of the economy of the village, it is also a tradition that has been practiced by local indigenous women for decades.
Faisal at WALHI, the largest and oldest environmental advocacy NGO in Indonesia, said the company’s mining activities are likely illegal.
“There is evidence, documentation from residents, including videos and photos, that showed how this mining company is carrying out activities illegally,” he said. The material shows the company working despite lacking the proper permits.
Faisal said that women are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate and ecological crises, and, as in much of the world, are still not in the rooms where policy decisions are made.