Indonesian govt under fire over forest clearance plan
Indonesian environmentalists and Catholic activists have slammed a government plan to clear about 20 million hectares of forest for food and energy projects, which they say will worsen the environmental crisis.
Jan 06, 2025

Indonesian environmentalists and Catholic activists have slammed a government plan to clear about 20 million hectares of forest for food and energy projects, which they say will worsen the environmental crisis.
Uli Arta Siagian, forest and garden campaign manager for the Indonesian Environmental Forum, called the Forestry Ministry’s plan a “deforestation legalization project that will trigger an ecological apocalypse.”
“The environment and the safety of the Indonesian people will be at stake. Clearing 20 million hectares of forest will release emissions on a very large scale and ultimately cause an ecological disaster, drought, global warming and crop failure,” she said.
The Forestry Ministry should be “the guardian of our forests,” she told UCA News. “As a guardian, this ministry should be the one at the forefront of blocking plans to clear forests, not planning to clear them and legitimize it in the name of food and energy.”
In a statement on Jan. 2, Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said that 20 million hectares of forest spread across the archipelago will be converted to be utilized by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
He said the government plans to plant dryland rice, targeting an additional rice stock of up to 3.5 million tons per year, equivalent to the amount of rice imports in 2023.
In addition, he said, the land will also be planted with arena trees that can produce 24,000 kiloliters of bioethanol, an alternative fuel to replace gasoline.
Siagian said that the forest clearance move threatens communities living in forest areas where the clearances are planned.
Forest Watch Indonesia Campaign and Advocacy Manager, Anggi Putra Prayoga, said the 20 million hectares of forest mentioned by Minister Raja Juli is almost twice the size of Java Island, namely 128,297 square kilometers or 12.28 million hectares.
“Forests of this size are very significant in fighting the global climate crisis which will ultimately disrupt food, energy and water,” he said.
The Ministry of Forestry claimed in 2023 that the nation’s forest area was 125 million hectares.
Critics say the forest cover has declined due to deforestation triggered by the granting of permits to business groups and corporations.
Between 2021-2023, Indonesia lost 1.9 million hectares of forest due to deforestation, Prayoga said. This figure adds to the loss of forests between 2000-2017 — an estimated 23 million hectares.
"Forests are a source of water and food. However, much food is lost if the forest is damaged," Prayoga said.--ucanews.com
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