By: Supriman D. Siki Mahuseng (KAoem MUda) and Kaoem Telapak Media Team*
Nagamadoto Island in Mano Village, South Halmahera, North Maluku is split apart into two, due to natural phenomenon and human activities. This event not only affects the tourism activities in the island but also marks a warning that many other island clusters in Indonesia are also threatened by something similar.
Coastal of Nagamadoto Island, as one of the spots for tourists to park their boats. Picture by Supriman D. Siki Mahuseng, 2025
On August 17, 2025, around 70 meters of distance appeared between Nagamadoto Island and the fragmented island that got separated by the sea. A small section of surface that was previously occupied with trees and well-known as one of the main attractions among tourists is now submerged underwater.
This discovery was conveyed by Amruzil, Head of Mano Student Association (IPMM) who cisited Nagamadoto Island during that period and measured the distance that separated the island.
Amruzil elaborated, “There was once a small part of the island that was filled with a combination of white beach sands and souls, as well as trees which connected a large section of Nagamadoto Island with a much smaller section of it. But now, the trees are no more and sea water has split those two sections apart and turned them into two separate islands.”
The natural beauty of Nagamadoto Island
Located at the tip of the surface which borders with the vast ocean, Nagamadoto Island lies to the east of Gamumu Island and to the south of Obi Island, an island currently known for its nickel mining.
Nagamadoto Island is also a favored island among tourists, particularly praised by the South Obi citizens, due to its natural beauty, such as the dazzling white sand on every edge of the island, all while surrounded by clear, almost emerald-like sea water. As the icing on the cake, exotic coral reefs also occupy the same beach areas across the island to further decorate the beautiful sea habitat.
Due to the beauty, people around Nagamadoto Island treat the island as a tourism spot and frequently visit the island to hang out and have fun. Whether it’s a family, a group of friends, or the nickel mining employees in Obi Island, tourists from many places visit the island for a vacation by sailing on a pentura (longboat), katinting (wooden boat with an engine), speedboat, and other fisheries boats.
In fact, since 2021, the number of tourists visiting Nagamadoto Island rose up to thousands of people.
A group of people traversing Nagamadoto Island with a boat. Picture by Supriman D. Siki Mahuseng, 2025
Tourists sailing to Nagamadoto Island not only enjoy their vacation in the island, but also on their journey to the destination. Typically, these people set sail to the island by passing through two different routes, one of which being on the outer part of the island and away from Mano Village to enjoy the beautiful scenery of green islands surrounded by the blue sea.
The second route goes through the inner path surrounded by Peti Island, Paniki Island, and other islands. Tourists are able to take a closer look into the nature that inhabit the island cluster, such as the bats hanging upside-down on the mangrove trees and the fishes swimming on the water surface or underwater, filled with coral reefs.
Gradual changes to Nagamadoto Island
However, the island began to change gradually. Locals observed the ongoing transformation, not in a good way, that occured to Nagamadoto Island, which they also commonly referred to as Dobu-Dobu Island.
The white sand beach in “Dobu-Dobu,” a nickname among the local residents for Nagamadoto Island. Picture by @Welkom_3535 on TikTok, 2025
Dauf, born from a family who owns a farm in Nagamadoto Island, said that huge tidal waves that typically hit the coast became much higher than usual and eventually reached the island, which became one of the reasons the coast experienced abrasion. Eventually, the abrasion damaged the coast and withered away the surface that connected a large section of the island with its smaller section.
“Every year in July and August, there’s a tidal wave season which results in the rising height of the wave. But lately, the waves got so high that they reached the surface and caused abrasion to the coast, splitting apart the tiny surface in Nagamadoto Island,” Dauf said.
This whole statement showcases a real proof of climate damage; the disappearance of the tiny section that acted as a ‘bridge’ in Nagamadoto Island is a serious issue that affects the environment and ecosystem.
However, climate damage is but a tiny piece to the puzzle that is the damage in Nagamadoto Island. In fact, humans also play a major role in this phenomenon.
Part of the “Dobu-Dobu” white sand beach is gone, splitting Nagamadoto Island into two. Picture by @Welkom_3535 on Tiktok, 2025
First of all, the people living in and outside Nagamadoto Island frequently scrape the sand on the island to build a housing complex and other buildings, causing the beauty of the white beach sand to wither away.
Next, illegal logging is frequently an issue across the Nagamadoto Island coast which reduces the green area in the island and weakens the ground structure across the beach, thus hastening the abrasion.
Furthermore, the climate damage also disrupts the coral reef ecosystem and weakens their role in reducing the tidal wave energy that becomes more powerful and more frequent.
A warning to raise awareness for environment preservation
The phenomenon in Nagamadoto Island is not an ordinary one but rather a serious issue that everyone should respond to, considering this may also potentially affect the 17,380 islands recorded in the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) in December 2024.
Coral reef ecosystem is a very important indicator in supervising the level of climate damage in the world. Due to coral reef’s sensitivity towards the sea water temperature, they are easily damaged by the change in the temperature thanks to the global warming phenomenon which is part of the climate damage.
The damage sustained by the coral reef ecosystem is very dangerous for the islands in Indonesia, because as mentioned before, coral reef serves as a protective wall to defend the coasts from erosion that’s caused by tidal waves.
Without coral reef, the increasingly more powerful and frequent tidal waves will potentially decrease the number of islands in Indonesia even further, and that the damage that Nagamadoto Island sustained might happen to other islands as well.
Both national and international institutions are responding to this climate damage issue that affect the sea and islands across the globe. For one, the United Nations Environment Programme/UNEP held an event for the World Environment Day in 2014 under the theme “Raise Your Voice, Not the Sea Level.” Meanwhile, Indonesia adapted the theme into “Unite Our Steps, Protect Coastal Ecosystem from Climate Change.”
However, that is far from enough to make a change.
In order to protect the islands in Indonesia, every citizen in Indonesia must unite, hand-in-hand to preserve the environment, in order to defend the remaining ecosystems in existence. Do not let the phenomenon that happened to Nagamadoto Island also happen to the other islands in Indonesia.
*This article is written in collaboration between Kaoem Telapak and Supriman D. Siki Mahuseng, KAoem MUda from North Maluku
