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View all search resultsState-led projects drive soaring forest loss in Indonesia, watchdog finds
An environmental watchdog has found that over 430,000 hectares of forest areas were cut down last year, primarily for realizing President Prabowo Subianto’s food and energy self-sufficiency agenda.
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A hut stands amid a handful of trees on Jan. 18, 2026, after heavy equipment cleared a swath of land for an oil palm expansion project in Lamno, Aceh Jaya regency, Aceh. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
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ndonesia has seen its highest level of forest loss in almost a decade in 2025, the first full year under President Prabowo Subianto whose administration has been expanding large-scale food and energy estates in critical deforested islands, according to a new report from Auriga Nusantara.
Using satellite imagery analysis and field verification, the environmental watchdog found that more than 430,000 hectares of forest area nationwide, around six times the size of Singapore, were cleared in 2025.
Launched in Jakarta on March 31, the Indonesia Deforestation Status 2025 (STADI 2025) report highlights that land clearing surged 66 percent last year compared to 2024, reversing the country’s declining deforestation trend over the past decade.
“The surge in deforestation in 2025 was truly alarming, taking Indonesia back to a period when it was at its highest,” Auriga executive director Timer Manurung said during the launch event.
He was referring to the deforestation rate in 2016, when more than 1 million ha of forest were cleared, the highest level in a decade at that time.
Kalimantan has consistently topped the ranks of most deforested regions since overtaking historic record holder Sumatra in 2013. Last year, the region lost nearly 160,000 ha of forest area, or more than one-third of the nationwide figure, with Central Kalimantan ranked the most deforested province.
Meanwhile, the easternmost region of Papua recorded the biggest jump in land clearing in 2025, when it lost roughly 77,000 ha of forest, more than a fourfold increase compared to 2024.
