Floods, Red Mud, and Nickel: Reading Kawasi as a Case of Climate Justice on a Small Island

Abstract

Small islands are often portrayed as highly vulnerable to climate change because of their limited land area, ecological sensitivity, and dependence on coastal resources. Yet vulnerability is not produced by climate change alone. It can be intensified by extractive industries and rapid landscape transformation. This article examines Kawasi on Obi Island as a case of climate and environmental injustice associated with nickel development. It focuses on recurring floods, red sediment deposition, altered landscapes, and the increasing exposure of local communities to environmental risks. Particular attention is given to how mining-related transformation may interact with the existing ecological vulnerability of small-island environments. The article also considers the differentiated impacts experienced by women, children, and households whose livelihoods depend directly on local ecosystems. Through a climate-justice framework, Kawasi is analyzed not simply as a community exposed to environmental hazards but as a community situated within unequal economic and political relations. The central question is who gains from nickel-based industrialization and who bears the resulting ecological risks. The article argues that climate justice must extend beyond reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to include the protection of vulnerable communities from environmentally harmful forms of low-carbon development. A just transition in small-island contexts therefore requires ecological safeguards, community participation, livelihood protection, and recognition of local rights before industrial expansion proceeds.