JAKARTA — A provisional moratorium on issuing forest-clearing permits for plantations and logging is expected to be made permanent, Indonesian officials have announced. The moratorium prohibits the conversion of primary…
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency has joined a growing chorus of criticism against a government decision to permit deforestation in a concession at the heart of a bribery scandal. It…
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — The government of Indonesia’s Aceh province will reject applications for new mineral and coal-mining projects in the region for another half year, in a bid to…
Indonesia, a top carbon polluter, has a plan to cut its emissions. But unless it takes more drastic measures, it will miss the target it has set for itself, according…
Massive forest fires in the Congo and Amazon, surging deforestation in Brazil, and tentative steps toward reform in Indonesia and Myanmar: there were no shortage of major happenings in tropical…
A crucial new government regulation on peatland management in Indonesia is spurring debate over whether the country is going far enough to prevent a repeat of last year’s disastrous forest…
Try to get your head around this one. There is this beautiful natural forest area in West Kalimantan, called Sungai Putri, which roughly translates as the River of the Princess.…
In May, the Indonesian government announced that nearly half of the peatlands protected under a 2011 forestry moratorium have actually been damaged or converted. Last week, the forestry ministry said…
Top officials in Indonesia have reportedly declared a moratorium on new oil palm and mining concessions in the Leuser Ecosystem, the only place on Earth where elephants, rhinos, orangutans, and…
Banner Photo Credit: Bjorn Vaughn President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is preparing significant steps toward addressing the underlying causes of Indonesia’s devastating wildfires, including an enhanced moratorium on licenses to exploit peatlands, but…
massive peat dome on Borneo’s southern coast is under threat from an oil palm firm whose area of operation should never have been removed from Indonesia’s moratorium on new licenses…
Many Southeast Asians are wondering if they will have to withstand another blanket of haze from rainforest fires as Indonesia enters its annual dry season.
ine months into the landmark presidency of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Indonesia’s first head of state to emerge from neither the political elite nor the military, the hope that ran to…
Less than three weeks after APRIL unveiled a sustainability policy that is supposed to protect natural forests, an environmental group is alleging that one of the Indonesian forestry giant's subsidiaries…
Peat forest canopy in Riau, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), an Indonesian forestry giant that was once one of the biggest targets for environmentalists…
Rainforest in Riau, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Last fall Indonesia elected its first president with no ties to the established political order or the military. Joko Widodo's election…
Indonesia kills first-of-its-kind REDD+ Agency Strangler fig in Sulawesi. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The world's first cabinet-level ministry dedicated to implementing REDD+ has been dissolved. In accordance with Indonesian…
Deforestation in Riau, Sumatra in 2014. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. When Indonesia's former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared a moratorium in May 2012 on the issuance of new permits…
Peat forest in Riau, Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A Butler. New Indonesian president Joko Widodo has ordered the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to review licenses for companies that have…
Peat forest in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett Butler. Indonesia's new Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar imposed a moratorium on the issuance of all new logging…
Illegal oil palm plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Butler. Newly elected Indonesian president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced on October 26th that the Ministry of Forests and the Ministry…
Norwegian ambassador to Indonesia Stig Traavik commutes to the office by bike every day. Jakarta's poor air quality pushes many residents to wear face masks on a daily basis. Despite…
An orphaned Sumatran orangutan at a rescue facility run by the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme Activists have launched an urgent appeal calling upon outgoing Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to…
Indonesia now has the highest deforestation rate in the world, topping even Brazil which has more than five times the natural forest cover. Background photo: rainforest in Sumatra. The Indonesian…
Singkil Swamp Forest Wildlife newly burned for palm plantations in Trumon, South Aceh District, Aceh. Photo: Chik Rini. Oil palm plantations and other developments are threatening Rawa Singkil Wildlife Preserve—Aceh's…
Indonesia now has the highest deforestation rate in the world, topping even Brazil which has more than five times the natural forest cover. Background photo: rainforest in Sumatra. Despite a…
Forest destruction in Riau Province, Indonesia on 06/23/2013. © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace. Haze caused by burning peat forests in Indonesia kills an average of 110,000 people per year and…
Environmental groups blasted a "lenient" sentence imposed on the director of a palm oil company that illegally destroyed an area of endangered peat forest in Indonesia's Aceh Province, reports the…
Rudi Putra. Photo courtesy of the Goldman Prize. An Indonesian has won the world's most prestigious award for environmental activism for his efforts to fight illegal logging, forest encroachment for…
Aru Islands. Courtesy of Global Forest Watch. An Indonesian plantation company may be preparing to destroy up to half of the natural forests on Indonesia's remote Aru Islands, reports Forest…