GNVNews 2025/4/27

In Indonesia, one of the world’s largest deforestation projects is underway, and in 2024 approximately 175,400 hectares of forest were lost, showing that deforestation is worsening.

In Indonesia, under former President Joko Widodo from 2014 to 2024, the plan to build large-scale plantations known as “food estates” to improve national food security was revived, but there were skeptical assessments. President Prabowo Subianto has expanded such projects to pursue more development of renewable resources, including crops such as sugarcane and corn to produce the renewable fuel bioethanol, as well as increasing production of food crops like rice. Biofuels such as bioethanol play an important role in decarbonizing transport. However, for the expansion of biofuels to be developed sustainably, impacts on land use, food, and other environmental factors must be minimized, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned.

Indonesia has the world’s 3rd-largest tropical rainforest and is home to numerous endangered wildlife species and plants, but accelerating deforestation is putting biodiversity at risk. Indigenous communities in Papua in the region say their livelihoods and cultural identities are under threat. Furthermore, AP News, citing an unpublished government assessment it obtained, states that carbon dioxide emissions from land clearing for this project are 315 million tons, estimated, but another 2 times higher, according to an estimate as well.

Learn more about deforestation in other countries → “Malaysia: Can deforestation be stopped?“

Learn more about Indigenous peoples and land rights in Indonesia → “Indonesia: Changing Indigenous land rights under the Widodo administration“

Learn more about West Papua → “West Papua: Escalating conflict“

(Photo: Indonesia: Deforestation in West Papua)
International Partnerships Facility EFI / Flickr [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]