Do you know about Raja Ampat, the amazon of the oceans? It is a place of unparalleled beauty in West Papua.
According to a recent media report of Australia's richest men, Clive Palmer, is buying nickel laterite ore for his Yabulu refinery from an Indonesian company that is defying a ban and mining in Raja Ampat, the world's most ecologically diverse marine environment.
Landowners receive less than 0.3 per cent of estimated revenue from the Manuran mine and the military has been deployed to protect the commercial interests of the supplier and, say local villagers, intimidate them.After promising interviews, Queensland Nickel and Yos Hendri, the director of PT ASP and PT ASI, withdrew their offers and declined to answer detailed emailed questions Read more here
Please, if you love beauty do these four simple things now. Do it for the folks who live in Raja Ampat and the fragile and the amazing ecosystem that is there:
1. Contact your local member (for those in Australia) and send them an email. Say something like Clive Palmer would not be allowed to mine the Great Barrier Reef. Why should he get away with it next door in West Papua? Tell your member about the issue and ask what they are going to do about it. Ask them to get back to you as well. To find your local member visit>
2. Send an email to Queensland Nickel click here and tell them what you think of their business practices
3. Contact Hubert Gijzen from UNESCO in Jakarta to ask why Raja Ampat is not a World Heritage Area and what UNESCO is doing about it?
4 Write to the SMH with your concerns and any other media the story appears in. letters@smh.com.au
