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Indonesia’s forests, long held up as a case of tentative progress, are again under pressure. New analysis shows deforestation rose sharply in 2025, reversing several years of decline and returning to levels not seen in nearly a decade, reports Mongabay’s Hans Nicholas Jong.
Auriga Nusantara, an Indonesian NGO, estimates that more than 430,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) were cleared last year, a jump of 66% from 2024. The increase follows a period when forest loss had fallen steadily, reaching a low in 2021 after a series of policy interventions and tighter oversight. Since then, losses have climbed each year, with 2025 marking a clear break from the earlier trend.
The shift is notable in a global context. In Brazil, enforcement has pushed Amazon deforestation down for three consecutive years. Indonesia is now moving in the opposite direction, with the possibility of becoming the largest tropical deforester if current patterns hold.
Policy choices help explain the change. Regulatory easing during the later years of former President Joko Widodo’s presidency reduced some environmental safeguards. Large-scale habitat conversion programs, including food estate projects and industrial expansion, have opened forested land. The current administration has continued many of these priorities, with land allocated for agriculture, energy and infrastructure often overlapping with intact forest.
The geography of loss is also changing. Papua, home to some of Indonesia’s most extensive remaining forests, recorded a sharp increase in clearing. Areas once considered relatively insulated are coming under greater pressure as expansion moves eastward.
Industrial activity remains central. Nearly half of the deforestation occurred within licensed concessions, linking forest loss to mining, timber and oil palm. Demand for nickel, driven by electric vehicle supply chains, has extended roads and extraction into previously undisturbed areas.
The consequences extend beyond land use. Indonesia’s climate targets depend on turning its forestry sector into a net carbon sink. Rising deforestation makes that goal harder to reach. Even in years with lower clearing, emissions reductions have not met targets.
Officials say safeguards remain in place and point to differences in how forest loss is measured. Researchers disagree on the figures, but the direction is consistent. The balance between conversion and protection is shifting again.
Read the full story by Hans Nicholas Jong here.
Banner image: Nickel mining on Manuran Island. Image courtesy of Auriga Nusantara.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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