IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v15y2026i2p273-d1858660.html

Sourcing Critical Metal from Critical Habitat: Is the Trade-Off Worth Making?

Author

Listed:
  • Latifah Azizah

    (Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London SW7 1NE, UK
    Impacts on Agriculture, Forestry and Ecosystem Services (IAFES) Division, Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Changes (CMCC), 07100 Sassari, Italy
    National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), Palazzo Steri, 90133 Palermo, Italy)

  • Minerva Singh

    (Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London SW7 1NE, UK
    Nature Based Solutions Initiative (NBSI), School of Geography and Environment, Oxford University, Oxford SW7 2UA, UK)

Abstract

This study analyzes the environmental impact of nickel mining on biodiversity in Indonesia’s Wallacea region, using habitat quality as a proxy. It employs the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) Habitat Quality Model to project current and future habitat quality and degradation. Findings confirm that nickel mining significantly threatens habitat quality. Under a future scenario, 10% (513 km 2 ) of excellent-quality habitat is projected to be lost across the study area. Specifically, mining zones face severe degradation and a future absence of excellent habitat, though protected areas are expected to maintain excellent quality. The study highlights Indonesia’s core dilemma between economic nickel dominance and severe environmental destruction, stressing the need for equitable global risk-sharing. We recommend three strategies: (1) an Integrated Land-Sparing Strategy, (2) Responsible Mining Practices, and (3) Risk Mapping with Equitable Global Risk-Sharing Policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Latifah Azizah & Minerva Singh, 2026. "Sourcing Critical Metal from Critical Habitat: Is the Trade-Off Worth Making?," Land, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-21, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:15:y:2026:i:2:p:273-:d:1858660
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/15/2/273/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/15/2/273/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:15:y:2026:i:2:p:273-:d:1858660. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.