<![CDATA[The presence of nickel mining in Maba Sub-District, East Halmahera Regency, creates a dilemma between economic opportunity and environmental-social risk for surrounding communities. This study aims to reveal how residents of Pekaulang and Baburino Villages perceive these activities using a qualitative case study approach. Data were collected from 24 purposively selected informants including village officials, youth leaders, farmers, fishers, and traders, through semi-structured interviews, observation, and documentation, then analyzed using the Miles and Huberman (1994) interactive model. Findings show that community perception is ambivalent: cognitively, residents understand environmental impacts empirically but have limited regulatory knowledge; affectively, emotional polarization emerges between those who benefit and those who bear the burden; conatively, patterns of conditional support, rejection, and passive acceptance appear, with land disputes as the main structural issue. The novelty of this study lies in its integrative application of the cognitive-affective-conative framework to a previously unstudied nickel mining village in North Maluku, contributing to the development of participatory and equitable governance.]]>
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