Forest loss in Indonesia jumped 66% in 2025, reaching its highest level in eight years, driven by weak environmental safeguards and an aggressive push for food and energy self-sufficiency, an environmental group said on Tuesday.
The archipelago, made up of thousands of islands, has some of the world’s thickest forests and most biodiverse regions, but it leans heavily on mining and palm plantations to support its $1.4 trillion economy, which is the biggest in Southeast Asia.
Auriga Nusantara, a think tank focusing on forestry and biodiversity in Indonesia, used high-quality satellite images combined with on-the-ground visits to 49,000 hectares of forest across sixteen provinces.
It found that a total of 433,751 hectares (4,338 square kilometres) of forest was cleared last year, a dramatic jump from 261,575 hectares in 2024, said Timer Manurung, Auriga’s chairman.
Food And Energy Security Goals Driving Forest Loss
Manurung identified President Prabowo Subianto’s food security programme as one of the main contributing factors. The programme aims to boost domestic output of key agricultural products like rice and reduce Indonesia’s dependence on imports.
The government allocated 20.6 million hectares of forest areas for food-, energy- and water-related programmes in 2025, 43% of which was natural forest. More than 78,000 hectares of the “food reserve forest” were cleared last year, an area the size of New York City, according to Auriga calculations.
As it cleared parts of the island of Borneo to make room for rice fields, Indonesia said last year that it had achieved self-sufficiency in rice production.
Prabowo’s bioenergy push also had a heavy impact, with areas converted to industrial forest to produce biomass and another 37,910 hectares cleared inside Indonesia’s sprawling oil palm concessions.
An additional 41,162 hectares of forest were converted into coal, gold, and nickel concessions, Manurung said.
Borneo, Sumatra And Papua Hit The Hardest
Among Indonesia’s islands, Borneo saw forests shrink the fastest last year, with Sumatra and Papua ranking second and third. East Kalimantan, the location of Indonesia’s planned new capital, was the hardest-hit province.
Three Sumatran provinces affected by floods and landslides last year showed “dramatic increases in deforestation” with Aceh rising by 426%, North Sumatra by 281% and West Sumatra by 1,034% compared to 2024.
The government must improve regulation to ensure that natural forest is better protected, and should also expand conservation areas outside forest estates, Manurung said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
