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 per cent 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.
“They are gambling, they are speculating … it’s peat land and not suitable for rice,” Manurung said.
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.
“The current presidency is continuing the pattern of former president Joko Widodo, which uses the so-called national strategic projects and Omnibus Law (Job Creation law) that weaken environmental protection,” he said.
Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry and a spokesperson for the president did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sustainability/indonesian-forest-loss-surges-66-in-2025-driven-prabowos-self-sufficiency-drive-report-6027546
