In 2021, Tesla entered a partnership with a mining operation on New Caledonia, a French colony in the Pacific, to source nickel for electric-vehicle batteries. New Caledonia contains a quarter of the world’s nickel deposits but is even richer in biodiversity. The island has the highest rate of species endemism on the planet, with more than 2,000 species of plants and animals found nowhere else. Botanists still discover, on average, a new plant every month, including a parasitic pine tree and the oldest living lineage of flowering plants.
What makes New Caledonia’s flora so unusual? Some scientists think the island is a time capsule of forest from dinosaur times. Others believe it’s the same nickel that Elon Musk wants for Tesla cars. Nickel is usually poisonous to plants but half of New Caledonia’s endemic plant species have adapted to grow on “ultramafic” soil rich in metals.
Mining companies are deforesting the island by removing all the vegetation and vacuuming up the soil. Nearly half of New Caledonia’s ultramafic forest (which includes rainforest) is currently under mining concessions and less than 5 percent is legally protected.
In this New Yorker reporting project, Ben Crair tells the story of the evolution of New Caledonia’s singular forests—and the botanists racing to discover new species before mining companies cut them down.
