Indigenous community fights to save its lands on Indonesia’s historic tin island
By Moh. Tamimi BELITUNG ISLAND, Indonesia — Nasidi paddled gently past a row of the eponymous rasau trees that line the riverbanks here in Tebet Rasau village, where a decade ago people would wade into the Lenggang River to catch silverfish. But life along the river here in the hills of Belitung Island, he said, is not as it once was. “In the past, if it rained upstream, after three days the water would get to our village,” Nasidi told Mongabay Indonesia as he continued along the Lenggang. “Now, as soon as it rains, the water rushes down quickly and causes flooding.” Tebet Rasau is named for t...