The Cost of Indonesia Food Estate Program on The Washington Post, January 2024

Recent photo and video work for The Washington Post on The Cost of Indonesia Food Estate Program

Story Excerpt:
Indonesia has been clearing tens of thousands of acres of densely vegetated peatland for farming, releasing massive amounts of carbon that had been sequestered below for centuries and destroying one of the Earth’s most effective means of storing greenhouse gases.

The country is home to as much as half of the planet’s tropical peatland, a unique ecosystem that scientists say is vital to averting the worst results of climate change. Government leaders have made halting efforts to protect peatlands over the last two decades, but three years ago, when the pandemic disrupted food supply chains, officials launched an ambitious land-clearance operation in a push to expand the cultivation of crops and cut Indonesia’s reliance on expensive imports.

Read the story by Rebecca Tan with additional reporting by Dera Sijabat here

Nickel Unearthed, a Film for Climate Rights International's Report

Recent film work for Climate Rights International to accompany their report on the impact of Indonesia’s growing nickel industry, especially on the remote Halmahera Island, Maluku.

Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of nickel, supplying 48 percent of global demand in 2022. Across the country, massive nickel industrial parks are being built, where nickel ore is refined into usable materials for industrial applications and consumer products. While for decades nickel has primarily been used in the production of stainless steel, demand has skyrocketed in recent years due to increasing use in renewable energy technologies, including in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. To meet the growing demand for EVs and other renewables, and in a scenario aligned with the Paris Agreement’s climate goals, global nickel demand is expected to increase roughly 60 percent by 2040. 

This report documents the environmental and human impacts of IWIP, a huge nickel smelting and processing project, and surrounding nickel mines in Halmahera. The construction and operation of IWIP and upstream nickel mining has devastated the lives of many Indigenous Peoples and other rural community members, and caused significant harms to the local environment and global climate. 

Producer: Adi Renaldi and Krista Shennum
Director and Cinematography: Muhammad Fadli
Editor: Martino Wayan
Graphic: Putu Deoris
Voiceover: Krista Shennum
Additonal Footage: Agoes Rudianto

Farwiza Farhan on Time Magazine October 2022 Cover

It’s undeniable that the climate change (or crisis probably a more proper term) has put great challenges for us human being all over the world. It’s not the future, but it’s already happening. One of the thing that contributes to the worsening of the crisis is the loss of forest cover. In Indonesia, it’s happening at an alarming rate (still).

It’s for the exact same reason why Farwiza Farhan’s effort with Haka is increasingly becoming important than ever. Sumatra, the sixth biggest island in the world, is among our planet’s last bastion of rainforest. Its lush jungle is home to various protected species like Sumatran tigers, orang-utans, elephants, to name a few. There’s a reason why people call it as the ‘lung of the world’.

Farwiza and her organization, which collaborate with local communities, focus on the Leuser Ecosystem in the Indonesian province of Aceh, one of the most important part of Sumatran rainforest. They work through policy advocacy, raising awareness, and strengthening community involvement and participation.

A little over a month ago, I was contacted by Time photo editor Whitney Matewe to photograph Farwiza as part of their 100 Next issue. I was a little nervous since the timeframe was quite tight and I was traveling for another assignment at that time. After a few discussion via email, Whitney came up with the concept of the ‘rising sun’ as a metaphor for what Farwiza is doing. We then decided to use a massive piece of colored fabric as props in order to depict the idea in a subtle way. For the location, we did the session at Kebun Raya Bogor (Bogor Botanical Garden), located around 40 km south of Jakarta. The session ran very smoothly (thanks to all the crew for sure). And I need to credit Farwiza too. She is such an amazing and relaxing person to work with.

Above is the final result as published on the cover the magazine. It’s scheduled to be hitting the newsstand by next week. What an honor to be able to contribute, even how small it is, to Farwiza’s effort.

And read the feature written by the one and only Jane Goodall here.

Photographer: Muhammad Fadli
Photo Editor: Whitney Matewe
Producer: Atikah Zata
First Assistant: Atet Pramadia
Second Assistant: Zulkifli
Video Team: Brahmma Putra & Majesty Benaya (Utuh Studio)

Bye Bye Plastic Bags in Credit Suisse Bulletin

Last year in September, Bulletin (a magazine by Credit Suisse) assigned me to travel to Bali in order to photograph the two sisters behind Bye Bye Plastic Bags: Melati Wijsen and Isabel Wijsen. The two sisters are known for their efforts to reduce plastic consumption in Bali. Here’s the opening spread from the feature as published in the January 2020 issue of the magazine.

Carbon Credit for The Wall Street Journal

Images (including outtakes) from recent assignment about Carbon Credit for The Wall Street Journal in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo).

Exceprt from original text by Jon Emont.

Eleven years ago Dharsono Hartono, a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker, spotted what he thought was a new way to make a fortune: climate change. The plan was to snap up rain forest in Borneo, preserve it from logging and sell carbon credits to big polluting companies in the developed world. The earth’s temperature was rising, and this was a way to profit by confronting the problem.

His bet has been on what some investors hope will be the most profitable outcome of a warming climate: government regulation of carbon emissions. Those who correctly anticipate future government responses to climate change are likely to reap profits.

Mr. Hartono went in big. His company’s rain forest, a humid and swampy expanse home to orangutans and clouded leopards, is twice the size of New York City and has one of the largest carbon stores of any such project in the world.

But the carbon windfall never arrived.