Raja Ampat; A Wounded Paradise

“What’s the True Cost of Your Nickel?”
“Nickel Mines Destroy Lives.”
“Save Raja Ampat from Nickel Mining.”

These three banners were raised by five Greenpeace activists as they shouted “Save Raja Ampat” while Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arif Havas Oegroseno, delivered a speech at the Conference & Expo held at Hotel Pullman, Jakarta, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. The outcry echoed, piercing the conscience dulled by the routines of a greedy development agenda that ignores the Earth’s carrying capacity.

What is happening in Raja Ampat is not merely a conflict between conservation and industry. It is one of the many ecological tragedies that mark a crisis in the relationship between humans and nature.

This planet is suffering from deep wounds—not only on the earth’s surface, but in the depths of the ocean, in the air we breathe, and even in the microscopic ecosystems invisible to the eye. It all stems from one root cause: the flawed way we understand and manage life.

We have long been trapped in a worldview that sees nature as a dead object—merely a resource to be exploited without limit. Yet in ancient philosophical traditions, humans are called the microcosm—a miniature of the macrocosm, the universe. The connection is not merely symbolic, but ontological. We are made of the same basic materials, composed of similar elements, and live within an interconnected web.

Thus, when one part of nature is damaged, the entire body of the universe feels the impact. Our ecological paradigm must shift: from anthropocentric to holistic. From exploitative approaches to spiritual-ecological ones. From power relations to relationships of love.

Thinkers like Henri Bergson spoke of the élan vital, the vital force of the universe present in all beings. Jalaluddin Rumi called it mahabbah—a love that unites all things. In the forest, at the bottom of the sea, and in the air we breathe lie traces of the Divine presence—vestigia Dei, tajalli Ilahi.

Sadly, this sacred relationship is constantly threatened by an age-old disease: greed. It infiltrates economic policies, investment projects, and even daily lifestyles. Greed is not merely gluttony, but a loss of awareness of our identity as part of the cosmos.

Without cosmological awareness and ecological ethics, even the vast ocean cannot satisfy human greed.

Papua, especially Raja Ampat, is the last bastion of surviving biodiversity. It is not only beautiful to look at, but vital to the planet’s survival. Turning it into mine after mine is a sign of ecological thinking gone wrong. Papua is not an object of exploration, but a subject of life itself: a breathing forest, a nurturing sea, and a culture that honors nature.

We don’t have much time. The climate crisis is real, and the tipping point may have already passed.

Great change always begins with a shift in perspective. With the awareness that humans and nature are one body. Hurting one part means hurting the whole.

If not kitorang, then who?
If not now, then when?

#ResistGreed #HumanandNatureAreOneBody #SaveRajaAmpat #SavePapua #SaveTheWorld