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[00:00.40] Indonesia aims to be the world’s top nickel supplier.

[00:06.78] But its efforts to produce nickel have seriously harmed the country’s forests, nonprofit groups say.

[00:16.09] Indonesia is the world’s third most rainforest-covered country, home to giant forest flowers and rare wild animals such as orangutans and elephants.

[00:31.23] Indonesia also has the largest reserves of nickel in the world.

[00:37.61] The metal lies in shallow deposits in the rain forest.

[00:42.92] Mining it is easy when the rainforest is cut down.

[00:48.24] Until recently, Indonesia mostly sold its nickel deposits in untreated form.

[00:56.73] It did not have factories to process the metal. Unprocessed nickel sells for less than the processed product.

[01:07.36] Ten years ago, Indonesian officials decided the country should stop selling its resources at such a low cost.

[01:17.99] Instead, officials said Indonesia would process the metal so it would sell at a higher price. This would result in more job openings, also, officials said.

[01:32.59] A large nickel-processing project began.

[01:36.58] Indonesian President Joko Widodo pushed the project further by building nickel factories, or smelters, near electric vehicle battery factories.

[01:50.12] In addition to the new nickel plants, coal power plants were built also to serve the new industrial sites.

[01:59.69] More than 740,000 square kilometers of Indonesian rainforest have been logged, burned or degraded, since 1950, reports the non-profit research group Global Forest Watch.

[02:17.22] But at the sites where developers are building these smelters, the surrounding forest disappears twice as fast, a new study by the Indonesian nonprofit Auriga says.

[02:32.62] The new study of rainforest loss, based on government data, shows deforestation rose from an average of 33 square kilometers around each nickel processing plant, or smelter, to 63 square kilometers.

[02:51.48] Indonesia plans to build as many as 22 new plants.

[02:56.79] If plans go through deforestation will likely greatly increase.

[03:03.17] “The damage to the environment is devastating,” said Timer Manurung of Auriga.

[03:10.08] “…Rivers are polluted, mangroves are cut to develop smelter areas, coastal areas and coral are being damaged by the smelters.”

[03:20.97] The waste from coal power plants is another problem, he said.

[03:25.48] The Associated Press verified the methodology used in the Auriga report.