EV trial among Bali east coast fishers shows promise amid headwinds

KLUNGKUNG, Indonesia — Many of the fishing boats here in Kusamba village leave behind the black sand in near silence as each jukung motors away from Bali’s east coast. “We’re on — it’s just not that loud,” boat captain Nengah Sudiarta told Mongabay Indonesia, his hand guiding the electric vehicle out from the Kusamba shoreline. Like many of the millions of fishers in the world’s largest archipelagic country, Sudiarta faces a growing array of challenges practicing a livelihood that sustained previous generations of households. Research shows overfishing, competition with larger vessels and unfolding impacts of climate change, from ocean acidification to a rise in harmful algal blooms, are reducing catches available to near-shore fishers. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent int