Lesson video

Hello, geographers.

Today's lesson is all about what people gain from ecosystems in which they live.

So we're gonna look at a real world example of an island in Indonesia called Halmahera and look at how indigenous people and local people are subsisting and living off the land and what the ecosystem, the rainforest, is providing for them.

But we're also gonna keep it very topical and look at, well, what's the activity in terms of commercial exploitation that's taking place there and what is the impact of that on the ecosystem? Because it's so topical, and now I think you're gonna find it really interesting, so let's make a start.

So today's outcome is, "I can understand that the biosphere provides important resources for local people and commercially." "I can understand that the biosphere provides important resources for local people and commercially." So that's what I want you to be able to say by the end of this lesson.

Key words then.

Biosphere.

And the definition of that is the living layer of Earth below the atmosphere.

Indigenous people.

People who have inhabited an area from the earliest times from the arrival of colonists.

Resources.

Materials in the environment such as food and wood that support our wants and needs.

Commercial exploitation.

The extraction and trading of materials, such as wood, for profit.

Mineral resources.

Economically valuable material concentrated in the Earth's crust, such as copper and oil.

And we're gonna be using those keywords throughout the lesson.

How is our lesson structured? Well, we have two parts to it.

We've got the first question, which is, how do local people benefit from the biosphere? And then secondly, how is the biosphere exploited commercially? So let's have a go at answering that first question then.

How do people, how do local people benefit from the biosphere? Now, here is our blue planet, our blue, green and brown planet.

The biosphere is the living layer of Earth below the atmosphere.

It is our global ecosystem.

So this word "sphere" is our global ecosystem.

This lesson specifically explores our use of the biosphere, but with a focus on Indonesia in Southeast Asia.

And here we can see Indonesia framed in a view on using Google Earth with its neighbours, Thailand, Singapore, and Papua New Guinea.

Aha! So this is a map of Indonesia, and Indonesia is picked out in green so we can see the extent of the country.

And then in orange, I've highlighted the province of North Maluku, which is one of the 38 provinces of Indonesia.

And then within that, we have an island called the the island of Halmahera, which as you can see is right on the equator.

And that's what we're gonna be focusing on today.

This is a island covered in tropical rainforest.

And so that's the biome we're gonna be talking about today.

Ecosystems such as rainforest provide a wide range of services supporting life on Earth.

Now what are these services? Well, they're grouped under four different headings.

We've got provisioning services, which are the goods, the things that we obtain or extract from ecosystems such as food, fuel, or building materials.

There are also supporting services.

These are the processes which support the planet to provide other services.

We've got regulating services, looking at things like carbon storage.

And cultural services, which are the benefits gained by human society from living in a healthy environment, including things like spiritual well-being and happiness.

But today we're gonna be focusing on provisioning services.

So thinking about those goods, those things that we are obtaining from the environment.

So quick check for you then.

"The term provisioning services refers to goods or resources provided by the biosphere, such as.

." A, spiritual well-being and happiness.

B, photosynthesis, soil formation by weathering.

Or C, food, fuel, building materials such as timber.

Pause the video, have a think about which one's the right answer, and then click play when you think you know the answer.

And if you said C, your absolutely right.

Well done.

Those provisioning services refer to goods like food, fuel, building materials such as timber, that we are gaining from the biosphere.

And that's our focus for today.

Now, historically, every society would've depended on the local environment to provide resources.

People needed to survive.

But today, only a few indigenous peoples gain almost everything that they need from the ecosystem in which they live.

And typically, a lot of these indigenous people do live in the tropical rainforest biome.

Who are indigenous people? And indigenous people are defined as those who have inhabited an area from the earliest times before the arrival of colonists.

Indigenous people and local people develop a close relationship with the environment.

They live within an environment, they depend on that environment, and they develop a close relationship with it.

What does that look like? Well, I've got two examples of traditional lifestyles of indigenous people here.

The first is hunter-gatherer.

So this is defined as a lifestyle that involves foraging or gathering food, such as wild plants, insects, or honey, and/or hunting wild animals.

In order to find sufficient resources, such communities are often semi-nomadic, meaning they move around.

Slash-and-burn shifting cultivation.

This involves cutting and burning a small area of forest to add nutrient rich ash to the soil.

Land can be farmed for three to five years before fertility declines, and it must be left to regenerate.

So this is a form of cultivation or small-scale agriculture involving clearing a very small area of the forest to gain that nutrients-rich ash from burning the forest in that location.

And that fertility can be added to the land, but is eventually exhausted, and the land must be abandoned before the farmers return later on.

So coming back to what we were talking about, semi-nomadic, these indigenous people might stay in an area for a short length of time, but then will move on both in their approach of being hunter-gatherers and also with their shifting cultivation approach.

Now we're gonna focus on the Hongana Manyawa who are indigenous people living on the Indonesian island of Halmahera.

Their population is estimated at between 1,500 and 3,000 people in total.

They live in lowland rainforest, and the Hongana Manyawa have a semi-nomadic lifestyles I was talking about.

Meaning they stay in one place for a little while, and then they will move on.

They're almost entirely self-sufficient as they hunt or gather most of the resources they need to live.

Now, what are they hunting or gathering? Well, they're hunting while boar, deer, and fish pictured here, and this is their protein source.

And then we have sago palms, which is a form of carbohydrate for them, which they're gathering.

Medicines are made from local plants they collect.

And they construct their homes from sticks and palm leaves.

It's true that they revere the forest because it also provides their fuel.

So it's providing such a wide range of resources to support their lifestyle.

The Hongana Manyawa practise shifting cultivation.

So that's what we were talking about, that small-scale agriculture as well.

Growing bananas, cassava, and sugar cane in small-scale gardens for themselves to eat.

This form of agriculture is less intensive due to their semi-nomadic lifestyle, meaning they do not stay in one location for long.

And here, we've got a quote from a man from the Hongana Manyawa people, and it's supplied to us by an NGO called Survival International.

"It is more convenient for me to keep moving because the food is much more diverse and available.

I can go hunting regularly." So we've got some explanation there of why this semi-nomadic lifestyle works well in this location.

Being local and small-scale, indigenous communities use of resources is often more sustainable than commercial exploitation of the biosphere.

Think about that word sustainable.

What does that mean, and why do you think their use of it is more sustainable? Their use of the ecosystem.

Well, of course, indigenous people meet their needs while ensuring that sufficient resources remain to support future generations because they've got that really close connection with the environment.

We've got a quote here.

"We defend the forest and mountains because we think of them as our parents." So that kind of demonstrates a very close relationship this indigenous people have with the environment in which they live with their ecosystem.

Check for you then.

"True or false? The Hongana Manyawa people are almost entirely self-sufficient." Pause the video, and when you know the answer, press play.

You're absolutely right if you said true, but can you explain why? Now, our answer here was that they rely on the rainforest ecosystem to provide their food, water, fuel and building materials, meaning they don't need to trade with others.

So that self-sufficiency is dependent on the ecosystem in which they live, but it's supplying so much for their lifestyle, isn't it? If you had an answer like that, congratulations.

Oh, another check for you.

"Indigenous communities' use of resources," so the use they make of resources, "is often more sustainable than commercial exploitation of the biosphere." Is that true or false? And remember, I'm gonna ask you why in a moment.

So when you pause the video, have a good chat to your partner about that one.

That is true, but can you explain why? What would you say on that? Great.

Well, our answer here was that impact is typically local and small-scale.

Secondly, it's not in their interest to harm the environment on which they depend for so much.

So it's not just that it's a small group of people, but it's also that they've got this really close relationship with the environment.

They understand it and they understand their dependence on it.

Okay, so I have a practise task for you.

Let's look at this altogether to start with.

So question one says, "List three ways in which the Hongana Manyawa people benefit from resources provided by the rainforest." So I need three ways there.

Question two asks us to read the following quote and then we're gonna have to summarise it in a single sentence.

Okay, I'll read it for you now.

"Many indigenous groups had their own concepts of respect for nature long before the conservation movement began.

They have been observing environmental changes for generations and have recognised patterns.

And that is exactly the kind of knowledge and expertise we need to tackle climate change and mitigate its harmful impact." So we've got the United Nations talking about perhaps here what we can learn from in indigenous groups, but I want you to summarise that in a single sentence for me.

So, what I suggest you do is pause the video now and have a go at writing some answers to those two questions.

Okay, how did you get on? So, our first question asks to list three ways in which the Hongana Manyawa people benefit resources provided by that Indonesian rainforest.

And your answers might include the following.

I've got a range of answers for you, but you had a number of different things you could have said.

So they hunt wild boar, deer, and fish, which are the main sources of protein for them.

They use the sticks and palm leaves they find to construct their homes.

They use their knowledge of the rainforest plants to treat illnesses.

They also use wood from the forest as their main source of fuel.

So I've given you four answers there.

You only need to talk about three ways that they benefit.

I'm sure you did a brilliant job on that one.

Now, the second question I had for you, or the second task, was a little bit of a tricky one, wasn't it? We had to read this quote and summarise it in a single sentence.

How did you get on? Did you manage to get it to just one pithy sentence? The answer we had is as follows.

"Indigenous people understand and are able to conserve ecosystems, so they have the knowledge we need to help address climate change and its impacts." So that was the way we had a go at summarising that and conveying the fact that the United Nations saying, is recognising here, if you like, that indigenous people have really important knowledge that's going to help us address climate change and its impacts.

Congratulations for having a go at that one.

It was a really tough task, wasn't it? Really tricky one.

Okay, so that's the first part of our lesson.

The second part of our lesson asks, "How is the biosphere exploited commercially?" Now here we have the map of Indonesia, just reminding you that we are focused on this specific island of Halmahera in North Maluku, which is a province of Indonesia.

And we're right on the equator, of course.

And a quote here, "I do not consent for them to take it.

Tell them that we do not want to give away our forest." So we have a quote here from a woman from the Hongana Manyawa people expressing the threat that she feels as a result of commercial exploitation taking place on the island.

So let's have a look at what it is that is being exploited.

So the land beneath the rainforest in Halmahera is rich in nickel, and this mineral resource is needed for the manufacturer of batteries for electric cars.

So electric vehicles.

Opened in 2019, the Weda Bay mine on the island of Halmahera is one of the largest nickel mines in the world today.

We've got a quite a dramatic image of the scale of one of these open-cast mines as part of this larger operation in the Weda Bay area of Halmahera.

Global demand for nickel is growing.

As a result, the Weda mine was created with investment from Canada, France, and China.

So that get us a sense of the global demand, different nations involved that are after this nickel that's under the ground in Halmahera.

The operating company in the Weda Bay mine area plans to increase its rate of production and also plans to mine in this area for up to 50 years.

So they've made a real commitment to working and extracting this mineral resource in this place.

Check for you here then.

Can you complete the gaps in the paragraph below using the words provided.

So we've got, "blank mining is a rapidly expanding blank on the island of Halmahera.

Its expansion is driven by the growth in blank demand for this blank resource used to manufacture batteries for electric blank." And we've got five words supplied to you there.

So what I suggest you do is pause the video, talk to your partner.

Can you fill in those blanks, sort that out for me? Restart it when you've got an answer.

Okay.

And if you said, "Nickel mining is a rapidly expanding industry on the Indonesian island of Halmahera.

Its expansion is driven by the growth in the global demand for this mineral resource used to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles," you got five out of five.

Well done.

Now, here we see Esri's Wayback app which can be used to view change over a decade from 2014 to 2024 on the island of Halmahera.

So we can see we're switching here between two different satellite images.

And this app really helps us to see the contrast and see the change in the exploitation of this landscape.

Have a quick look.

What changes can you see? This is what it looks like 2024.

And this is what this place looked like in 2014.

Clearly, some dramatic changes have taken place.

If I slow this down, so if I look at some stills here we've taken from Google Earth, this is an image in 2010 of the Weda Bay Industrial Park in Halmahera.

And right on the coast there in the south of the image, in the centre of the image, we can see there is an airstrip but not much else.

Not much else going on in that image.

By 2016, I'm sure you can see there is some roads aren't there on the west of the image that stretch into the interior from the coast.

And it looks like there are some small areas that are being cleared perhaps for open-cast mining.

But by 2022, we can see the area that's been developed is vastly enlarged.

Those roads have been developed and they've provided a route and they provided access to areas in the interior of the landscape that have been cleared, as well as those areas along the coast.

In the east of the image, on the coast, we can see there's sort of hub of industry where some of the industrial plants are processing the nickel that's being extracted.

So really interesting to use satellite images to investigate change in this sort of landscape.

The Weda Bay mine is a collection of open-pits created by clearing rainforest.

And interesting to note that this Weda Bay Industrial Park employs 28,000 Indonesian workers and 1,800 foreign workers.

So it's a big enterprise on Halmahera.

However, the commercial exploitation of Halmahera's valuable mineral resources have had consequences for the Hongana Manyawa people.

And we can see that when we look at that dramatic image.

We're now in the interior of the island looking towards the coast, just looking at the large areas of the landscape that have been cleared for open-cast mining.

Huge areas of rainforests have been cleared, meaning this indigenous people are being displaced and face the loss of their livelihood.

Remember, they're depending on the rainforest for almost everything.

Many Hongana Manyawa people now live in government-built villages, reflecting a move away from their semi-nomadic lifestyle.

So remember we talked about how they move every few months, every few years.

How possible is that going to be if they've been moved into government-built villages and they've got much more of a sedentary lifestyle? The third impact is that a small number of uncontacted tribes of the Hongana Manyawa people remain on the island of Halmahera.

And these people have little or no immunity to diseases common within the wider population.

So contact between these uncontacted tribes and the wider population could in fact spell disaster for the health of their community.

So three kind of dramatic impacts there.

When I talk about the population of uncontacted people, what do I mean? Well, these uncontacted people in the forest of Halmahera are estimated to be 300 to 500 people in number.

Why is that an estimate? Well, uncontacted means that without, these people have been without sustained contact between themselves and the neighbours or the wider world.

So for this reason, there has been no formal census of the community.

So unlike the wider community in Indonesia where the people experience a regular census, as we do in the UK.

In the UK, it's every 10 years, isn't it? People are only estimating the number of people that are uncontacted 'cause we don't have the formal statistics.

Survival International is a charity working in partnership with indigenous people and tribal people around the world to amplify their voices on the global stage.

And it's fair to say they're working in Indonesia, helping to raise the profile of the Hongana Manyawa and have been doing this in recent years as they face multiple threats from the development of the mining industry.

In 2024, government ministers and transnational corporations joined campaign groups in expressing concern for the plight of these tribes.

So this is really quite, you know, it's gaining traction isn't it? And Survival Internationals had an impact on raising the profile of these groups of people whose lifestyle are threatened by this commercial exploitation.

Check for you there.

"Uncontacted tribes on the islands of Halmahera face new threats as a result of the mining industry." Is that true or false? Pause the video now.

And if you said that is true, you'd be absolutely right.

But can you explain why? I'm sure you had a great answer for that.

Our answer was this.

"They have little immunity to diseases common in the wider population.

Contact is more likely as the forest in which they live is being cleared." Another check for you then.

"the Hongana Manyawa people face the loss of their livelihood and lifestyle as a result of the mining industry." Is that true or false? And remember I'm gonna ask you why in a moment.

So pause the video, talk to your partner, and then press play when you want to hear the correct answer.

And if you said true, that is absolutely true.

They face the loss of not only their livelihood but also their lifestyle.

Can you explain that answer? Well done for having a go.

Our answer was as follows, "Loss of rainforest deprives them of the resources they hunt and gather, and they're being displaced from the land that they farm." So having numerous impacts on this people.

Okay, so broadening things out perhaps beyond the Indonesian island of Halmahera.

Around the world, different ecosystems are being increasingly exploited commercially.

What are they being exploited for? And we've got an interesting image there of hydroelectric power in Brazil there.

Well, they're being exploited for energy.

Coal, oil and natural gas.

Water.

So dams like this dam pictured enable governments to control the flow of rivers and hydroelectric power can be generated to supply the population.

Mineral resources.

Valuable goods transported and traded globally support the growth of industry, jobs and wealth.

And we've already looked at commercial exploitation of course, of mineral resources.

However, this commercial exploitation has consequences for ecosystems. So extracting fossil fuels can cause local pollution and burning them creates greenhouse gases contributing to global climate change.

Flooded river valleys mean reduced flow downstream, and dams trap sediment which farmers may have relied upon to fertilise their land.

So those farmers were downstream of where the dam is now sited and perhaps their land is no longer being fertilised as a result of a dam being installed.

Mining can lead to pollution, as chemicals used in the extraction processing of minerals may lead to leaks, and we have leaks into water sources.

It, of course, also scars the landscape, and we've seen photographs of that already.

Clearance of vegetation to enable large scale commercial operations, not least that open-pit mining we've been looking at, leads to habitat loss, which in turn threatens biodiversity.

Okay, I have a practise task for you here.

So I've got those images up we've looked at of the Weda Bay area of Halmahera.

We've got, on the left-hand side, 2016.

And on the right-hand side, we've got 2022.

And the question asks you, "What has changed between 2016 and 2022 in the Weda Bay area? Hint: Use the scale I provided to estimate area or distance." So what has changed? I want you to make some, describe some of the differences between those two images.

What's happened in that period of time? Pause the video now and think about what that might be.

I suggest you have a go, a written answer on this one.

Secondly, "Explain the impact of the rapid expansion of nickel mining on the island of Halmahera." I want you to explain it in terms of the impact on people, but also explain it in terms of the impact on ecosystems. So there are two parts to this question, and you might like to answer it separately.

So talk about the people first and then talk about the ecosystems. So pause the video now, have a go and answering those two questions in your own words.

And then when you're ready to have a look at some correct answers, restart the video.

Okay, how did you get on with analysing those two satellite images? Wasn't an easy task, was it? But really interesting to have a look at.

And maybe you went online and had a look at Google Earth yourself, did you? In 2022.

So this is our answer.

"In 2022, the east-west extent of industry along the coast has expanded considerably to more than 10 kilometres.

This is more than one and a half times the length of the coast that showed development in 2016." One and a half times the length of the coast that showed development in 2016.

So we've tried to quantify the distance along that coast that has been affected, and we're making that direct comparison by saying that in 2022, it's one and a half times the length of the coast that showed development in 2016.

There's lots more that we could say about that.

Of course the development goes further into the interior of this island, but that's one comment you could have made.

Now, in terms of explaining the impact of the rapid expansion of nickel mining on the island of Halmahera, how'd you get on with explaining the impact on people? Well, we've said, "While jobs have been created for many in the mining industry, some groups of indigenous people have been negatively affected as they've lost their semi-nomadic way of life." Secondly, we were looking at the impact on ecosystems. Our answer was, "Deforestation is taking place to enable open-pit mining, which has a negative impact on animals as habitats are destroyed." If you had something in that second part looking about loss of biodiversity and loss of habitat, that's a great answer.

So we've covered quite a lot today, haven't we? Let's just recap what we have covered.

The biosphere provides a wide range of resources for indigenous peoples and local people, including food, medicine, building materials, and fuel.

Their use of the biosphere is often small-scale and sustainable.

The biosphere is also commercially exploited for resources such as energy, water, and minerals.

The extraction of these natural minerals is carried out to meet global demand.

However, this activity may threaten the livelihood of indigenous and local people and negatively affect the environment if habitats are lost.

Gosh, we have covered a lot there, haven't we? Well done for taking part in this lesson, and I look forward to seeing you very soon.