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REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Minister of the Environment, Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, confirmed his team has conducted intensive surveillance of four nickel mining sites in Raja Ampat Regency, West Papua, following community reports of potential environmental damage. The move was taken after the issue of environmental pollution surfaced at the end of May 2025.
In his presentation, Hanif explained that the Ministry of LHK directly sent a supervisory team to four mine sites, namely at PT Gag Nikel (PT GN), PT Kawei Sejahtera Mining (PT KSM), PT Anugerah Surya Pratama (PT ASP) and PT Mulia Raymond Perkasa (PT MRP), on May 26-31, 2025. “We take people's reports seriously and conduct field verification,” he told a news conference on Sunday (8/6/2025).
The Minister of Mineral Resources (ESDM) has also made a field visit. Hanif said while the Environment Ministry team examined the reports of people in Raja Ampat, he was dealing with an environmental case in Morowali Industrial Area, Central Sulawesi, so he could not go directly to Raja Ampat.
However, he confirmed that he would soon follow up with the monitoring team in the next few days after dealing with air quality issues in Jakarta. Raja Ampat, known as the center of global marine biodiversity with 75 percent of the world's coral species, became a sensitive area. Hanif stressed that 97 percent of the district's area is forest area, consisting of nature reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, and protected forests.
“We have to take care of this ecosystem of Raja Ampat very carefully because its biodiversity is quite very high with a wide variety of flora and fauna that makes Raja Ampat a central point in our government that we need to manage very wisely,” he said.
The strategic environment document (LHS) of 2021 and the RTRW of West Papua have been the reference in this supervision. Four active mine sites are being monitored for reports of suspected pollution and landscape changes. Aerial photographs using drones show mining activity on Gag Island, Mayapur, Kawei, and Manuran Island—all of which are small islands protected by Law 1/2014.
Hanif said a ministry monitoring team that followed up on community reports found environmental pollution and landscape destruction in Raja Ampat. One of the monitored companies, PT GN, operates on Gag Island with a concession area of 6,030 hectares.
