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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Kalimantan environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/kalimantan/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s wildfire season surges as haze spreads into Malaysia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indonesias-wildfire-season-surges-as-haze-spreads-into-malaysia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indonesias-wildfire-season-surges-as-haze-spreads-into-malaysia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2026 14:23:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/13132905/image0-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326174</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Malaysia, Sarawak, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Disasters, El Nino, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Destruction, Global Environmental Crisis, Great Apes, Mammals, Monkeys, Orangutans, Pollution, Primates, Rainforest Destruction, Threats To Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Haze from fires in Indonesian Borneo has drifted across the border into the Malaysian portion of the island, pushing air pollution there to “very unhealthy levels” and causing school closures. On Aug. 12, Sarawak’s Tebedu district, near the Indonesia-Malaysia border, recorded an air pollution index (API) exceeding 200, considered “very unhealthy,” prompting the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Haze from fires in Indonesian Borneo has drifted across the border into the Malaysian portion of the island, pushing air pollution there to “very unhealthy levels” and causing school closures. On Aug. 12, Sarawak’s Tebedu district, near the Indonesia-Malaysia border, recorded an air pollution index (API) exceeding 200, considered “very unhealthy,” prompting the government to close six schools and shift classes online. IQAir, a Swiss-based air quality technology company, ranked Kuching, the capital of Malaysia’s Sarawak state, as the most polluted major city in the world on Aug. 11. Air quality map of Southeast Asia on Aug. 11, 2026. Image courtesy of IQAir. According to Malaysia’s Air Pollutant Index Management System (APIMS), 11 areas in Sarawak recorded unhealthy API readings on Aug. 11, up from eight on Aug. 9. The worsening air quality in Sarawak comes as fires intensify in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, which neighbors the Malaysian state. The ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC), which monitors and assesses wildfires and transboundary haze in the Southeast Asia region, observed smoke drifting from West Kalimantan into western Sarawak across several days in July. A map from the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) showing haze coverage and wind direction in the southern ASEAN region on Aug. 11, 2026. Image courtesy of ASMC. As haze blanketed parts of West Kalimantan, authorities in the provincial capital, Pontianak, have suspended schools indefinitely and shifted classes online. Fires also affected parts of Sumatra. Haze from the western Indonesian island has historically drifted north to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indonesias-wildfire-season-surges-as-haze-spreads-into-malaysia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indonesias-wildfire-season-surges-as-haze-spreads-into-malaysia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326174</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Flames reach edge of orangutan rehabilitation center, with fire season set to intensify</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/flames-reach-edge-of-orangutan-rehabilitation-center-with-fire-season-set-to-intensify/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/flames-reach-edge-of-orangutan-rehabilitation-center-with-fire-season-set-to-intensify/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2026 10:41:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/07103831/Kebakaran-Rangkong-22-July_20260722_-MUFID_0434-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325527</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Extreme Weather, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Great Apes, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Mammals, Orangutans, Primates, Rehabilitation, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rehabilitation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A wildfire that reached the edge of an orangutan rehabilitation center in western Borneo is highlighting how Indonesia&#8217;s intensifying fire season threatens not just forests and wildlife, but also the conservation work taking place within them. The fire stopped just short of the facility run by the nonprofit organization YIARI, where more than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A wildfire that reached the edge of an orangutan rehabilitation center in western Borneo is highlighting how Indonesia&#8217;s intensifying fire season threatens not just forests and wildlife, but also the conservation work taking place within them. The fire stopped just short of the facility run by the nonprofit organization YIARI, where more than 60 critically endangered Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) are undergoing rehabilitation after being rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and habitat loss. The fire broke out on July 22 about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the center in Sungai Awan Kiri village, Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province. Thick smoke blanketed the area as nearly 100 personnel from government agencies, the military, police and YIARI fought for hours to stop the flames before they reached the facility. &#8220;The fire reached the boundary of the rehabilitation center&#8217;s land,&#8221; YIARI CEO Karmele Llano Sánchez told Mongabay. Aerial view of the fire that broke out on July 22, 2026, about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from YIARI&#8217;s orangutan rehabilitation center in Sungai Awan Kiri village, Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province. Image courtesy of YIARI. She said the incident highlighted the importance of being prepared for fires. “If we had not responded quickly, part of our rehabilitation center might already have been destroyed by the fire,” Llano Sánchez said. Satellite imagery of the fire that broke out on July 22, 2026, about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from YIARI&#8217;s orangutan rehabilitation center in Sungai Awan Kiri village, Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province. Red&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/flames-reach-edge-of-orangutan-rehabilitation-center-with-fire-season-set-to-intensify/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325527</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil expansion reignites decade-old Indigenous land conflict in Indonesia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2026 03:49:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas JongNiken D. Sitoningrum]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31032649/image-32-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325017</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Crops, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Palm Oil, Rainforest Destruction, Social Conflict, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two palm oil companies embroiled in a long-running land dispute with an Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo have resumed the clearing of rainforest and other land to expand their plantations for the first time in more than a decade. In June 2025, the Indigenous Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae reported that the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two palm oil companies embroiled in a long-running land dispute with an Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo have resumed the clearing of rainforest and other land to expand their plantations for the first time in more than a decade. In June 2025, the Indigenous Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae reported that the two companies — PT Borneo Surya Mining Jaya (BSMJ), owned by Singapore-listed First Resources, and PT Munte Waniq Jaya Perkasa (MWJP), a subsidiary of Malaysia-owned TSH Resources — had restarted land clearing and evictions in what the community says is its ancestral territory. The latest activities mark a new chapter in one of Indonesia&#8217;s highest-profile land conflicts involving the palm oil industry, which Mongabay covered in an in-depth report in 2015. Eviction activity using heavy equipment by PT BSMJ as of 2 June 2026 (c) Kaoem Telapak The dispute dates back to 2011-2012, when BSMJ and MWJP began bulldozing rainforest in an area claimed by Muara Tae, a village in West Kutai district, East Kalimantan province. The companies say they bought leasehold rights from residents of Muara Ponak, a village next to Muara Tae. But Muara Tae has contended the companies colluded with individuals in Muara Ponak who fraudulently signed away hundreds of hectares of Muara Tae’s communally held land, in exchange for hundreds of millions of rupiah in compensation. The district government facilitated the transactions by redrawing the Tae-Ponak border, increasing the latter’s territory at the expense of the former. The district chief at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325017</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lawmakers seek rights probe into Indigenous conflict at Indonesian timber firm</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2026 10:23:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/27180141/Screenshot-2024-03-28-010118-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322966</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Business, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Forest Products, Forestry, Great Apes, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Law, Mammals, Orangutans, Peatlands, Primates, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Social Conflict, Tropical Deforestation, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian lawmakers have called for a government fact-finding probe into a long-running conflict between an Indigenous community in Borneo and an industrial timber company linked to one of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent deforestation cases. The call came at the end of a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta on June 30, where lawmakers said testimony presented [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian lawmakers have called for a government fact-finding probe into a long-running conflict between an Indigenous community in Borneo and an industrial timber company linked to one of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent deforestation cases. The call came at the end of a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta on June 30, where lawmakers said testimony presented during the session strengthened indications of alleged structural and systematic human rights violations in the conflict. Responding to the hearing, Indonesia&#8217;s Ministry of Human Rights said it would conduct a more comprehensive review of the case, including field monitoring and coordination with other government agencies, as it prepares to investigate allegations of human rights violations linked to the conflict between PT Mayawana Persada and the Dayak Kualan community in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province. The Dayak Kualan community alleges the company&#8217;s concession overlaps with its customary lands and forests, and that Mayawana proceeded to clear the area without obtaining its meaningful consent. Despite the community&#8217;s longstanding objections, Mayawana razed lands and forests that the Dayak Kualan community says form part of its customary territory, according to Tarsisius Fendy Sesupi, the customary chief of Lelayang, one of the Indigenous hamlets overlapped by the concession. &#8220;The company never sought the community&#8217;s agreement. It simply moved in and cleared everything,&#8221; he said at a recent press conference in Jakarta. In cases where community members agreed to relinquish their land, they did so under pressure and received only 1.5 million rupiah (about $83) per hectare, or $34 per acre,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322966</doi>				</item>
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					<title>A possible strong El Niño fuels fears for fires across Indonesian tropical peatlands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-possible-strong-el-nino-fuels-fears-for-fires-across-indonesian-tropical-peatlands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-possible-strong-el-nino-fuels-fears-for-fires-across-indonesian-tropical-peatlands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2026 07:49:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rendy Tisna]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/02073825/peat-fire-in-borneo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322321</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Peatlands, Temperatures, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA, Indonesia — An emerging El Niño risks fueling devastating wildfires on peatland areas in Borneo earmarked by Indonesia&#8217;s government about six years ago for a flagship food estate program, environmentalists have warned. The warning comes as Indonesia braces for heightened fire risk during the current dry season. “What we are most concerned about is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[JAKARTA, Indonesia — An emerging El Niño risks fueling devastating wildfires on peatland areas in Borneo earmarked by Indonesia&#8217;s government about six years ago for a flagship food estate program, environmentalists have warned. The warning comes as Indonesia braces for heightened fire risk during the current dry season. “What we are most concerned about is the rice paddy cultivation activity that is being carried out on peatlands,” said Janang Palanungkai, who runs the Central Kalimantan office of Indonesia’s largest environmental group, Walhi. Central Kalimantan is one of five Indonesian provinces on Borneo, a forested island twice the size of Germany shared by Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesia’s meteorology agency, the BMKG, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have both determined that a strong El Niño is likely this year. An El Niño is declared when equatorial Pacific Ocean temperatures remain more than 0.5° Celsius above average for several months. This warmer surface water sets off a global chain of climatic reactions, including hotter and drier conditions over Indonesia, which is home to the world’s largest tropical peatlands. “There is a 50% to 60% chance of a moderate El Niño starting mid-year, and the 2026 dry season is predicted to be drier than usual,&#8221; the BMKG’s Ardhasena Sopaheluwakan said in mid-June. Traditional fishermen are active in the peatland areas of Central Kalimantan. Image by Rendy Tisna/ Mongabay Indonesia. Satellite imagery from NASA&#8217;s FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) shows the distribution of hotspots in the West Kalimantan&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-possible-strong-el-nino-fuels-fears-for-fires-across-indonesian-tropical-peatlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322321</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s supplier choices put FSC remedy process to the test</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 04:12:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23034155/signal-2026-06-01-105626_002-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Global, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Industry, International Trade, Land Use Change, Logging, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation process. In late May, APRIL announced it was reviewing its decade-old Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 and lowering its deforestation cutoff date from 2015 to Dec. 31, 2020. The move allows Indonesia&#8217;s second-largest pulp and paper producer to source wood from PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana), two companies that have experienced some of the country&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. APRIL said the decision was necessary to address fibre shortages after the Indonesian government revoked the operating permits of four of its long-term suppliers earlier this year, affecting around 15% of its wood supply in Riau Province. According to data from the forest-monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, together, IFP and Mayawana lost nearly 80,000 hectares (197,684 acres) of forest­­­­­ — an area almost half the size of London — between 2015 and 2024, including more than 54,000 hectares (133,436 acres) after 2020. This is more than any other forestry companies in Indonesia. Deforestation in the concession of PT Mayawana Persada, September 2020–April 2024 © Earthsight. Image source: Sentinel-2 via Copernicus Browser Environmental groups have criticized the move, arguing that it weakens a longstanding no-deforestation safeguard and sends a message that companies&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321620</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Solar brings power to women entrepreneurs in Borneo, but rural energy inequality remains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/solar-brings-power-to-women-entrepreneurs-in-borneo-but-rural-energy-inequality-remains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/solar-brings-power-to-women-entrepreneurs-in-borneo-but-rural-energy-inequality-remains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2026 10:36:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yuda Almerio]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319421</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Bioenergy, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Gender, Governance, Just Transition, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Solar Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KUTAI KARTANEGARA, Indonesia — Asniah recalls nights lying in darkness listening to cicadas and the passing hum of outboard motors after her family moved to Muara Enggelam in the 1990s, an over-the-water village in the interior of Indonesian Borneo, cut off from basic services. Around the turn of the century, a handful of homes in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KUTAI KARTANEGARA, Indonesia — Asniah recalls nights lying in darkness listening to cicadas and the passing hum of outboard motors after her family moved to Muara Enggelam in the 1990s, an over-the-water village in the interior of Indonesian Borneo, cut off from basic services. Around the turn of the century, a handful of homes in Muara Enggelam acquired diesel generators, bringing electric lighting for the first time to the timber stilt houses that still line the last mile of the river where the Enggelam meets Borneo’s Lake Melintang. The Kutai Kartanegara district government here later expanded this basic electrification program, but residents paid several times more for power than a grid-connected urban household. Moreover, the generators ran only from dusk to dawn and would frequently break down, plunging Muara Enggelam back into the void Asniah recalled on moving here three decades earlier as a child. “We were just grateful — things had been harder before,” Asniah, a mother of three now in her early 40s, told Mongabay Indonesia at her home. “Even though there was 24-hour electricity in the city at the time,” she added. Stable energy access provides greater scope for women to develop businesses and contribute to the family economy. Image by Yuda Almerio/Mongabay Indonesia Remote work Uneven access to electricity has abetted inequality in what is now Indonesia ever since Dutch colonialists introduced captive coal plants in the 19th century to power their plantation operations. Indonesia’s Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, records the wealth gap between&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/solar-brings-power-to-women-entrepreneurs-in-borneo-but-rural-energy-inequality-remains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319421</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists fear fires could erase years of orangutan habitat recovery</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 10:34:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/01/02083516/sabah_3982-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318990</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, El Nino, Fires, Forests, Great Apes, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Orangutans, Peatlands, Rainforests, Reforestation, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires have burned part of a decade-long orangutan habitat restoration site in Indonesian Borneo, raising fears among conservationists that another severe fire season could wipe out years of recovery efforts before the dry season has even fully begun. A decade ago, Yayasan IAR Indonesia (YIARI), the Indonesian affiliate of International Animal Rescue, began [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires have burned part of a decade-long orangutan habitat restoration site in Indonesian Borneo, raising fears among conservationists that another severe fire season could wipe out years of recovery efforts before the dry season has even fully begun. A decade ago, Yayasan IAR Indonesia (YIARI), the Indonesian affiliate of International Animal Rescue, began restoring degraded orangutan habitat in Pematang Gadung village in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province, after villagers repeatedly reported orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) entering farms and eating crops. The incursions were driven by habitat loss. Large parts of the surrounding forest had already been degraded, including during Indonesia’s catastrophic 2015 fire season, when more than 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of land in and around the village were burned. Since then, YIARI, together with the government and local communities, have worked to restore the damaged landscape by planting trees that provide food for orangutans, with the hope that if enough food is available in the forest, the critically endangered apes will stop venturing into farmland. As of early 2026, the group had restored around 300 hectares (740 acres) with 150,000 trees, including fruit-bearing species favored by orangutans. Local community members planting trees at the restoration site of orangutan habitat in Pematang Gadung village in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan. Image courtesy of YIARI. The work is especially important because the remaining orangutan habitat in the area has become increasingly fragmented. Illegal gold mining operations now surround much of the forest, leaving wildlife confined to shrinking patches of habitat. “Once&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318990</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU deforestation law nudges timber trade, Indonesia probe shows, but risks persist</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eu-deforestation-law-nudges-timber-trade-indonesia-probe-shows-but-risks-persist/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eu-deforestation-law-nudges-timber-trade-indonesia-probe-shows-but-risks-persist/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2026 04:31:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/17040959/Picture1-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317697</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Europe, European Union, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forests, International Trade, Rainforests, Regulations, Supply Chain, Timber, Timber Laws, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Several European timber firms have cut ties with suppliers linked to deforestation in Indonesia following a 2025 investigation, suggesting that an upcoming European Union regulation is already influencing behavior ahead of its implementation at the end of 2026. Still, new trade data show imports from high-risk suppliers continued in 2025, raising concerns that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Several European timber firms have cut ties with suppliers linked to deforestation in Indonesia following a 2025 investigation, suggesting that an upcoming European Union regulation is already influencing behavior ahead of its implementation at the end of 2026. Still, new trade data show imports from high-risk suppliers continued in 2025, raising concerns that timber linked to forest clearance may still be entering EU supply chains. In their 2025 investigation, U.K.-based NGO Earthsight and its Indonesian partner, Auriga Nusantara, traced timber from recently cleared forests in Indonesian Borneo to European importers, using government documents, satellite imagery and trade records. Analyzing nearly 10,000 unpublished documents submitted to Indonesian authorities, the investigators identified cases where timber produced through forest clearance had entered European supply chains in some cases. The findings showed that the top five users of deforestation-linked wood in Indonesia in 2024 all exported products to the EU. Their main European customers were companies in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, which together ordered more than 23,000 cubic meters (812,200 cubic feet) of wood products that year, including plywood, decking and door frames. While only some shipments could be directly verified, the investigation pointed to a wider risk that timber linked to deforestation is entering EU markets through opaque supply chains. But despite these findings, the investigation has already prompted changes among some of the companies involved, with several cutting ties with the suppliers named in the report. Under the EU’s new antideforestation regulation, the EUDR, set to come into force&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eu-deforestation-law-nudges-timber-trade-indonesia-probe-shows-but-risks-persist/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317697</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>See an orangutan, take a photo, earn some money: A viable conservation model?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/see-an-orangutan-take-a-photo-earn-some-money-a-viable-conservation-model/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/see-an-orangutan-take-a-photo-earn-some-money-a-viable-conservation-model/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2026 22:54:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Linnea Hoover]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/10154758/orangutan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317580</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Orangutans, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Kapuas Hulu district in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, a pilot program is attempting to change how people living in Borneo perceive and engage with wildlife and wildlife conservation. KehatiKu, a play on the Indonesian words for “my heart” or “biodiversity,” was the brainchild of Borneo Futures, a scientific consultancy company, says biologist Erik Meijaard, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Kapuas Hulu district in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, a pilot program is attempting to change how people living in Borneo perceive and engage with wildlife and wildlife conservation. KehatiKu, a play on the Indonesian words for “my heart” or “biodiversity,” was the brainchild of Borneo Futures, a scientific consultancy company, says biologist Erik Meijaard, the consultancy’s managing director. Under the program, citizen observers are offered small payments for recording and reporting wildlife sightings, collecting around 175,000 records in around a year of operations. In a video interview, Meijaard says the project came about because he was frustrated with inefficiency in conservation. In 2022, Meijaard worked on a study analyzing 20 years of efforts to save orangutans. The study found that from 2000-19, nearly $1 billion was spent on orangutan conservation worldwide, even as around 100,000 orangutans were lost. By offering small payments directly to residents, Meijaard says KehatiKu has shown concrete successes at a fraction of the cost of normal conservation. Photograph of a Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) submitted by a KehatiKu citizen observer. Participants can earn Rp. 100,000 (about $5.84) for finding and photographing orangutans. Image courtesy of Borneo Futures. He estimates the program is spending less than $1 per hectare (2.5 acres) per year across the 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) they are studying. For that money, they are both building community engagement and getting real-time data on multiple species ranging from common birds to rare and endangered species such as the flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps), Rhinoceros hornbill&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/see-an-orangutan-take-a-photo-earn-some-money-a-viable-conservation-model/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Birutė Galdikas, primatologist who spent a lifetime studying &#038; defending orangutans, has died at 79</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birute-galdikas-primatologist-who-spent-a-lifetime-studying-defending-orangutans-has-died-at-79/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birute-galdikas-primatologist-who-spent-a-lifetime-studying-defending-orangutans-has-died-at-79/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2026 03:21:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/26032516/birute-galdikas-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316316</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Great Apes, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Obituary, Orangutans, Primates, Reintroductions, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 1970s, orangutans occupied an ambiguous place in science. They were known to exist, of course, but remained poorly understood, rarely observed, and difficult to study in the wild. Their forest habitat in Borneo and Sumatra was still vast, though already beginning to change. Logging roads were extending into areas that had long [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 1970s, orangutans occupied an ambiguous place in science. They were known to exist, of course, but remained poorly understood, rarely observed, and difficult to study in the wild. Their forest habitat in Borneo and Sumatra was still vast, though already beginning to change. Logging roads were extending into areas that had long resisted access. The outlines of a larger problem were visible, even if its scale was not yet clear. At the same time, a small group of researchers was beginning to reshape how great apes were studied. Fieldwork, rather than captivity, became the preferred approach. Long-term observation replaced short expeditions. The premise was simple but demanding: to understand animals that were hard to find, one had to remain in place long enough for them to become familiar with human presence. Into this setting came a young graduate student with an interest in human evolution and a determination to study orangutans in their natural habitat, despite doubts that such work was feasible. With limited funding and little infrastructure, she established a research station in a remote peat swamp in Indonesian Borneo in 1971. Over time, that station would become one of the longest-running field sites for any wild mammal. Galdikas in the field. Photo courtesy of Orangutan Foundation International (OFI). Birutė Galdikas spent the next five decades working from that base. Her early years were marked less by discovery than by persistence. Finding orangutans could take weeks. Observing them required learning to move through dense forest and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birute-galdikas-primatologist-who-spent-a-lifetime-studying-defending-orangutans-has-died-at-79/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil clearing advances in Bornean orangutan habitat despite red flags</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/palm-oil-clearing-advances-in-bornean-orangutan-habitat-despite-red-flags/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/palm-oil-clearing-advances-in-bornean-orangutan-habitat-despite-red-flags/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2026 01:50:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30124058/sabah_3937-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316314</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Forests, Mammals, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A palm oil company is ramping up its destruction of forests that are home to critically endangered orangutans in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on the island of Borneo, according to satellite imagery and government sources. In October 2025, Mongabay reported that PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR) had clear-cut 1,376 hectares (3,400 acres) of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A palm oil company is ramping up its destruction of forests that are home to critically endangered orangutans in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on the island of Borneo, according to satellite imagery and government sources. In October 2025, Mongabay reported that PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR) had clear-cut 1,376 hectares (3,400 acres) of forest between January and August 2025, based on satellite image analysis by Satya Bumi, an Indonesian environmental nonprofit. Prior to that, ESR had cleared no more than 195 hectares (482 acres) of forest. The company is operating within a 15,000-hectare (37,000-acre) oil palm plantation concession in Kapuas Hulu, a district in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province. Now, an updated analysis by Satya Bumi shows that ESR further accelerated its rainforest clearing in the final quarter of 2025, razing an additional 1,492 hectares (3,687 acres) of forest from October to December. It has now cleared a total of 3,063 hectares (7,569 acres) of forest within its concession, according to Satya Bumi. Map that shows deforestation in palm oil company PT Equator Sumber Rezeki&#8217;s concession in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. ESR’s concession overlaps with part of the Labian–Leboyan watershed, a wildlife corridor connecting Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum national parks — two of the last strongholds for the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). The corridor and parks form part of the UNESCO-designated Betung Kerihun–Danau Sentarum Biosphere Reserve, whose forests sustain hundreds of species of wildlife, including sun bears, hornbills and giant rafflesia flowers. They also provide&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/palm-oil-clearing-advances-in-bornean-orangutan-habitat-despite-red-flags/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316314</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia court orders release of withheld impact studies on new capital</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-court-orders-release-of-withheld-impact-studies-on-new-capital/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-court-orders-release-of-withheld-impact-studies-on-new-capital/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2026 11:16:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Niken D. Sitoningrum]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/19101439/nusantara-wings-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315963</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Dams, Development, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Infrastructure, Law, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[EAST KALIMANTAN, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to release environmental impact assessments for two projects at the country’s new capital city, handing civil society groups a rare transparency victory. The case brought by the East Kalimantan provincial chapter of the Mining Advocacy Network, a civil society organization known as Jatam, was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EAST KALIMANTAN, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to release environmental impact assessments for two projects at the country’s new capital city, handing civil society groups a rare transparency victory. The case brought by the East Kalimantan provincial chapter of the Mining Advocacy Network, a civil society organization known as Jatam, was formally read out at Indonesia’s Information Commissioner, the KIP, in early March. “It’s a victory for the people in general, I think, especially those directly affected by the construction of the [new capital] infrastructure project in East Kalimantan,” said Muh. Jamil, the head of Jatam’s legal team on the case. An environmental impact assessment is a legal requirement to assess the immediate and cumulative environmental impacts of a project. It also formally identifies measures required to prevent undue harm to an ecosystem. The decision requires the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing to publish these environmental documents concerning the Sepaku Semoi Dam and Sepaku River intake, two utility water projects campaigners blamed for displacing Indigenous Balik families at Indonesia’s largest-ever construction site. The Balik community in Penajam Paser district numbers around 1,000 people and speaks a different language to the broader Dayak Indigenous groups living in East Kalimantan province. The Sepaku River intake comprises transmission pipes running 16 kilometers (10 miles) to Nusantara, the new capital city, with a supply capacity of 3,000 liters per second (nearly 800 gallons per second). The government calls the Sepaku Semoi Dam “a crucial supplier of water” for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-court-orders-release-of-withheld-impact-studies-on-new-capital/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315963</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thousands of peat fires flare across Indonesia despite rainy season</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/thousands-of-peat-fires-flare-across-indonesia-despite-rainy-season/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/thousands-of-peat-fires-flare-across-indonesia-despite-rainy-season/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2026 06:40:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/28140328/firefighter-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314232</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Health, Peatlands, Planetary Health, Plantations, Pollution, Public Health, Rainforests, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Satellite imagery recorded more than 5,000 fire hotspots on peatlands across Indonesia in January, despite the fact that much of the country remains firmly in the grip of the rainy season. Independent watchdog Pantau Gambut identified 5,490 hotspots within peatlands, perennially waterlogged ecosystems that store massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Official monitoring also [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Satellite imagery recorded more than 5,000 fire hotspots on peatlands across Indonesia in January, despite the fact that much of the country remains firmly in the grip of the rainy season. Independent watchdog Pantau Gambut identified 5,490 hotspots within peatlands, perennially waterlogged ecosystems that store massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Official monitoring also recorded an increase in fire hotspots, though using a different reporting method. Based on NASA Terra/Aqua satellite data, the Ministry of Forestry reported 110 hotspots nationwide in January 2026, up from 29 in January 2025 and 18 in December 2025. The two figures aren’t directly comparable, as they rely on different spatial filters and detection criteria. Pantau Gambut said the rise it recorded is concerning because it’s occurring during the wet season, which has been so intense this time around that it led to massive flooding in Sumatra in late 2025. The spike suggests fire risk in peat landscapes is no longer confined to the traditional dry season, but increasingly driven by degraded hydrology and land-use pressures, said Pantau Gambut campaigner Putra Saptian. Peat soil, which can be several meters deep, is made up of dead vegetation that, thanks to the waterlogged conditions, is only partially decomposed. In peat-rich areas across Sumatra and Borneo, logging and plantation companies have typically dug canals to drain the peat soil in preparation for cultivation, leaving behind vast swaths of highly flammable organic matter. Pantau Gambut recorded 1,824 hotspots inside the concessions of such companies in January, or a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/thousands-of-peat-fires-flare-across-indonesia-despite-rainy-season/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/thousands-of-peat-fires-flare-across-indonesia-despite-rainy-season/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314232</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On Indonesia’s longest river, a Borneo community passes crucial public health milestone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/on-indonesias-longest-river-a-borneo-community-passes-crucial-public-health-milestone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/on-indonesias-longest-river-a-borneo-community-passes-crucial-public-health-milestone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 08:18:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anggita Raissa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/11142044/Ningsih-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311135</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Drinking Water, Environment, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Pollution, Public Health, Rivers, Sustainable Development, Waste, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SEKADAU, Indonesia — Children’s laughter skimmed over water the color of mud as mothers wrung laundry over banks where the Sekadau joins the Kapuas, the longest river in Indonesia. Local testimony along the Kapuas River, which flows 1,143 kilometers (710 miles) east to west from Borneo’s Müller Mountains out into the Natuna Sea, suggests this [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SEKADAU, Indonesia — Children’s laughter skimmed over water the color of mud as mothers wrung laundry over banks where the Sekadau joins the Kapuas, the longest river in Indonesia. Local testimony along the Kapuas River, which flows 1,143 kilometers (710 miles) east to west from Borneo’s Müller Mountains out into the Natuna Sea, suggests this river — like many flowing across the world’s largest archipelagic country — may be losing prominence as a center of community life. “The river is dirtier now and no longer a gathering place like before,” an older resident told researchers from Tanjungpura University downriver in Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province, for a study published in September. But here in Sekadau, the river remains central to daily life — a place to bathe, wash vegetables, and, until recently, to defecate. Research conducted on the Kapuas from 2020-2022 and published in the Journal of Aquaculture and Fish Health last year recorded double the legal limit of lead, a heavy metal pollutant that impairs neurological development — and 24 times the maximum coliform bacteria level for rivers permitted by Indonesia’s government. The study authors said the dangerous coliform level reflected the rapid population growth that has taken place in recent decades along the banks of the Kapuas. Some here in the village of Sekadau, the seat of an eponymous district on the Kapuas, say they hope the hardening of Borneo’s main arterial river can still be mended. From 2002-2024 West Kalimantan province lost one-fifth of its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/on-indonesias-longest-river-a-borneo-community-passes-crucial-public-health-milestone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/on-indonesias-longest-river-a-borneo-community-passes-crucial-public-health-milestone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311135</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Taboo against harming strangler fig spirits protects forests in Indonesian Borneo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/taboo-against-harming-strangler-fig-spirits-protects-forests-in-indonesian-borneo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/taboo-against-harming-strangler-fig-spirits-protects-forests-in-indonesian-borneo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 22:37:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/22221311/Copy-of-IMG_7244-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311796</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation and Religion]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Habitat, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Religions, Traditional Knowledge, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When a young boy went missing near his mother&#8217;s rice field in Indonesian Borneo, the entire village searched for him. After nearly a day, he was found near a large strangler fig tree. The boy insisted he hadn&#8217;t been hiding. Spirits living in the fig tree had called his name and lured him away, he [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When a young boy went missing near his mother&#8217;s rice field in Indonesian Borneo, the entire village searched for him. After nearly a day, he was found near a large strangler fig tree. The boy insisted he hadn&#8217;t been hiding. Spirits living in the fig tree had called his name and lured him away, he said, then prevented his mother from seeing him even as she walked around the tree looking for him. The family took him to a shaman, who confirmed the boy had been targeted by spirits dwelling in the strangler fig. To protect him from future encounters, they changed his name entirely. This story, shared with researcher Ditro Wibisono Wardi Parikesit during interviews with an Iban Indigenous community in Sungai Utik, West Kalimantan, illustrates a powerful belief among the community. Almost all (30 out of 32) community members considered large strangler figs to host supernatural entities that may be dangerous if disturbed. New research published in the journal Biotropica reveals that this belief system has measurable ecological benefits. Photo of the largest strangler fig recorded which found in the farmland area. It consists of three different species and stands more than 40 meters tall. Photo by Ditro Wibisono Wardi Parikesit Strangler figs grow by depositing their seeds in the canopy of another tree. Their aerial roots grow downward, surrounding and squeezing the host tree until eventually dies. Once the host dies and decays, a hollow root structure supports the fig tree above. When farmers in the Iban&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/taboo-against-harming-strangler-fig-spirits-protects-forests-in-indonesian-borneo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/taboo-against-harming-strangler-fig-spirits-protects-forests-in-indonesian-borneo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311796</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp giant RGE admits possible deforestation breach in Bornean wildlife habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pulp-giant-rge-admits-possible-deforestation-breach-in-bornean-wildlife-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pulp-giant-rge-admits-possible-deforestation-breach-in-bornean-wildlife-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 13:54:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18204309/indonesia_160271-25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311741</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, International Trade, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, timber trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — One of the world’s biggest pulp and paper companies has acknowledged to Mongabay a potential breach of its no-deforestation commitment in its supply chain, raising questions about the company’s attempt to regain sustainability certification under the Forest Stewardship Council. A new report by U.S.-based campaign group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) alleges that Singapore-based [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — One of the world’s biggest pulp and paper companies has acknowledged to Mongabay a potential breach of its no-deforestation commitment in its supply chain, raising questions about the company’s attempt to regain sustainability certification under the Forest Stewardship Council. A new report by U.S.-based campaign group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) alleges that Singapore-based pulp and paper giant Royal Golden Eagle’s (RGE) supply chain is linked to deforestation in Indonesia, despite the group having adopted a no-deforestation policy in 2015. RGE, owned by Indonesia’s billionaire Tanoto family, is one of the world’s largest producers of wood pulp and the various products made from it, including paper, tissue, packaging, and viscose rayon. According to the report, RGE’s pulp and paper unit in China, Asia Symbol, sourced wood from two pulpwood plantations in Indonesian Borneo where 5,565 hectares (13,751 acres) of natural forest were cleared between 2020 and 2024. The analysis draws on satellite data, field investigations, and customs and wood supply records compiled by supply chain transparency platform Trase in its latest update on Indonesia’s pulp sector. The forest clearance occurred in the watershed of the Mahakam River, which contains some of the largest remaining tracts of intact rainforest in Indonesia and supports populations of critically endangered and iconic species, including the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), Mahakam population of the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), and the Bornean population of the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Previously thought to be extinct in the wild on Borneo, Sumatran rhinos were detected in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pulp-giant-rge-admits-possible-deforestation-breach-in-bornean-wildlife-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311741</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Green labeler PEFC under fire for certifying Indonesian firm clearing orangutan habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/green-labeler-pefc-under-fire-for-certifying-indonesian-firm-clearing-orangutan-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/green-labeler-pefc-under-fire-for-certifying-indonesian-firm-clearing-orangutan-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 17:04:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15111219/DJI_0028-min-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311360</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, International Trade, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A major global forestry certification body is under scrutiny for endorsing one of Indonesia’s largest recent deforesters, raising concerns that consumers may be misled about the origins of the wood products they buy. In November, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) approved the certification of Indonesian timber firm PT Industrial [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A major global forestry certification body is under scrutiny for endorsing one of Indonesia’s largest recent deforesters, raising concerns that consumers may be misled about the origins of the wood products they buy. In November, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) approved the certification of Indonesian timber firm PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP). The label allows the company to market its pulpwood as “sustainable,” even though investigative group Earthsight says IFP has in recent years become Indonesia’s second-largest deforester. Between 2016 and 2022, IFP cleared nearly 22,000 hectares (about 54,000 acres) of natural forest in central Borneo, an area roughly the size of Amsterdam, to establish its plantations. Since 2022, the company has cleared more forest each year than almost any other operator in Indonesia’s industrial plantation sector. The concession lies in a landscape recognized as a key stronghold for critically endangered Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), with roughly half the licensed area estimated to be orangutan habitat. IFP has refuted Earthsight’s findings, saying all clearing and planting was carried out under work plans approved by Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry. It also said it stopped logging natural forest at the end of 2023. But analysis by Indonesian NGO Auriga Nusantara shows deforestation continued well into 2024, with more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of forest loss recorded in the concession. That made IFP the fourth-largest deforester among plantation permit holders that year. PEFC told Earthsight it found no clear evidence of procedural error in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/green-labeler-pefc-under-fire-for-certifying-indonesian-firm-clearing-orangutan-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15165945/Recording2025-12-10133005-ezgif.com-gif-maker.mp4" length="0" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311360</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Dayak sound alarm as palm oil firm razes orangutan habitat in Borneo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/indigenous-dayak-sound-alarm-as-palm-oil-firm-razes-orangutan-habitat-in-borneo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/indigenous-dayak-sound-alarm-as-palm-oil-firm-razes-orangutan-habitat-in-borneo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2025 04:01:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/28121816/bornean-orangutan-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310408</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Culture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAPUAS HULU, Indonesia — A palm oil company is rapidly clearing rainforest inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that’s home to orangutans and sun bears, adding to concerns over Indonesia’s efforts to curb deforestation. The company, PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR), is a subsidiary of the Jakarta-based First Borneo Group, owned by Indonesian tycoon Alexander Thaslim. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAPUAS HULU, Indonesia — A palm oil company is rapidly clearing rainforest inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that’s home to orangutans and sun bears, adding to concerns over Indonesia’s efforts to curb deforestation. The company, PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR), is a subsidiary of the Jakarta-based First Borneo Group, owned by Indonesian tycoon Alexander Thaslim. It has cleared nearly 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of rainforest since it began operating last year in Kapuas Hulu, a landlocked district deep in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, near the border with Malaysia. ESR’s 15,000-hectare (37,000-acre) oil palm plantation concession overlaps with part of the Labian–Leboyan watershed, a wildlife corridor connecting Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum national parks — two of the last strongholds for the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). Conservationists estimate that as much as 80% of the concession area contains rainforest deemed of high conservation value, making it especially vital to protect. Orangutans inhabit about a quarter of the concession, according to a government-backed study from 2016. The corridor and parks form part of the Betung Kerihun–Danau Sentarum Biosphere Reserve, designated by UNESCO in 2018. Its forests sustain hundreds of species of fish, birds and mammals, including rare hornbills and giant rafflesia flowers, and provide water, food and livelihoods for Indigenous Dayak communities whose cultures are deeply tied to the land. The location of PT Equator Sumber Rezeki (ESR)&#8217;s palm oil concession in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, which overlaps with a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Despite the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/indigenous-dayak-sound-alarm-as-palm-oil-firm-razes-orangutan-habitat-in-borneo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310408</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bearing witness to Indonesia’s environmental challenges: Sapariah Saturi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/bearing-witness-to-indonesias-environmental-challenges-sapariah-saturi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/bearing-witness-to-indonesias-environmental-challenges-sapariah-saturi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 20:48:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/21043947/Sapariah-Sorong-Papua-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309882</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conversations with Mongabay leaders]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Environment, Forests, Green, Interviews, Interviews With Environmental Journalists, and Journalism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s environmental issues often feel too vast to take in at once. A nation said to have more than 17,000 islands, it contains the world’s third-largest tropical rainforest and one of its busiest commodity frontiers. For many Indonesians, the story of modern development is told not in charts but in the air they breathe. Some [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s environmental issues often feel too vast to take in at once. A nation said to have more than 17,000 islands, it contains the world’s third-largest tropical rainforest and one of its busiest commodity frontiers. For many Indonesians, the story of modern development is told not in charts but in the air they breathe. Some remember childhoods spent under yellowed skies, the sting of peat-fire smoke seeping through school windows, the sweet-acrid smell that clings to clothes long after the fires fade. Others know the slow rise of the sea by the way the ground squelches underfoot in places where it didn’t use to. Or the way Jakarta’s air tastes metallic on mornings when the pollution monitors glow red. For Sapariah “Arie” Saturi, these scenes are not abstractions. They are a biography. She grew up along the Kapuas River in West Kalimantan, a region shaped by the uneasy coexistence of forest, peatland, and the ambitions of logging firms, palm-oil giants, and mining companies. Fires arrived each dry season in the 1990s, and with them the haze: darkened skies, eyes that burned after a few minutes outdoors, a kind of muffled stillness that settles over the landscape when the smoke grows dense enough to dull sound and color alike. Masks were rare then. Children simply endured. Sapariah Saturi. Photo courtesy of Saturi. Today Arie lives in Jakarta, where the problems are different but no less tangible. The capital sinks a little each year, traffic is a consistent source of frustration, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/bearing-witness-to-indonesias-environmental-challenges-sapariah-saturi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309882</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Dayak resist new southern Borneo national park amid global protection deficit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2025 10:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rendy TisnaRiyad Dafhi Rizki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/18100750/1001354092-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309722</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Use Change, National Parks, Protests, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — A growing coalition of Indigenous communities, students and civil society organizations from Borneo is rallying against fast-moving plans to establish a new national park in the remote Meratus mountain range. “The Meratus forest is our mother,” said Anang Suriani, a spokesperson for the Dayak Indigenous community from Kambiayin, a village in South [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — A growing coalition of Indigenous communities, students and civil society organizations from Borneo is rallying against fast-moving plans to establish a new national park in the remote Meratus mountain range. “The Meratus forest is our mother,” said Anang Suriani, a spokesperson for the Dayak Indigenous community from Kambiayin, a village in South Kalimantan province that falls within the borders of the proposed Meratus Mountains National Park. “It&#8217;s a place where we live, farm, forage, practice tradition and obtain medicine,” he added. “Making it a national park is tantamount to destroying us.” The government plans to zone Meratus Mountains National Park over 119,779 hectares (295,980 acres), an area twice the size of the city of Chicago, or more than 50% larger than the country of Singapore. Since Indonesia’s independence in 1945, successive governments have established 57 national parks across the country, the largest of which is Lorentz National Park in Papua, at around 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres), an area 30 times larger than Singapore. The smallest, Kelimutu National Park on Flores island, is slightly smaller than the city state. South Kalimantan is one of only four of the 38 provinces across Indonesia that doesn’t have a national park. However, in April this year, UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural office, designated the Meratus Mountains as a Global Geopark for its “fascinating geological record of complex tectonic evolution beginning in the Jurassic period, 201 to 145 million years ago.” Officials in Indonesia unveiled the national park draft in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309722</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study maps whale shark stranding hotspots in Indonesia, highlights conservation needs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whale-shark-stranding-indonesia-marine-endangered-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whale-shark-stranding-indonesia-marine-endangered-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2025 14:55:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/26085157/ws_Edy-Setyawan_3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309717</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Kalimantan, Papua, Southeast Asia, Sulawesi, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Megafauna, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study has mapped whale shark stranding hotspots in Indonesian waters over the past decade and linked their occurrence to oceanographic dynamics, providing a scientific basis for targeted, preventative conservation strategies. In the study published in October, marine researchers from Indonesia and New Zealand identified locations with significant reports of stranded whale sharks (Rhicodon [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study has mapped whale shark stranding hotspots in Indonesian waters over the past decade and linked their occurrence to oceanographic dynamics, providing a scientific basis for targeted, preventative conservation strategies. In the study published in October, marine researchers from Indonesia and New Zealand identified locations with significant reports of stranded whale sharks (Rhicodon typus) across Indonesia between 2011 and 2023. They said long-term stranding records can fill key data gaps for migratory species, such whale sharks, and their analysis also revealed population demographics, trends and oceanographically driven stranding hotspots. “Findings from this study show that stranding incidents exhibit clear spatial and temporal patterns, with specific hotspots and seasons when cases increase,” lead author Mochamad Iqbal Herwata, a species conservation senior manager at Konservasi Indonesia (KI), the local affiliate of Conservation International, told Mongabay in an email interview. A juvenile whale shark migrating out of Saleh Bay, off Indonesia’s Sumbawa Island, toward wider waters. Image courtesy of Abdi Hasan/Konservasi Indonesia. The researchers documented whale shark strandings across Indonesia’s diverse marine habitats, where monsoon-driven oceanographic processes create productive feeding grounds. They compiled 115 verified events from news-based sources using strict inclusion criteria. They analyzed spatial and temporal patterns with statistical tests and hotspot mapping, finding that strandings were often associated with high chlorophyll-A (indicating phytoplankton abundance), high waves, and low sea surface temperatures during the southeast monsoon and transitional seasons. The scientists found that the studied whale shark stranding events across Indonesia revealed clear regional concentrations, with West Java and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whale-shark-stranding-indonesia-marine-endangered-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whale-shark-stranding-indonesia-marine-endangered-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309717</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists call for stronger action to save Indonesia’s vanishing seagrass meadows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/seagrass-meadows-marine-conservation-indonesia-blue-carbon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/seagrass-meadows-marine-conservation-indonesia-blue-carbon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2025 14:24:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/04064725/Jenis-lamun-di-Kepulauan-Togean-Sulawesi-Tengah.-Foto_-Christopel-Paino-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308768</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Kalimantan, Papua, Southeast Asia, Sulawesi, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Seagrass]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SANUR, Indonesia — Indonesia’s seagrass ecosystems are crucial for climate action, biodiversity and coastal livelihoods, yet remain a largely neglected asset, marine scientists and conservation experts said at a recent meeting. Participants at the Indonesian Seagrass Symposium, which ran from Oct. 29-30 on the island of Bali, called for stronger collaboration and data-driven policies to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SANUR, Indonesia — Indonesia’s seagrass ecosystems are crucial for climate action, biodiversity and coastal livelihoods, yet remain a largely neglected asset, marine scientists and conservation experts said at a recent meeting. Participants at the Indonesian Seagrass Symposium, which ran from Oct. 29-30 on the island of Bali, called for stronger collaboration and data-driven policies to secure the future of these ecosystems in Indonesia’s environmental agenda. They said scientific data gaps, weak institutional capacity and low public awareness were key barriers to stronger protection and policy integration. “I see seagrass as a kind of forgotten ecosystem,” Victor Nikijuluw, senior ocean program adviser at the foundation Konservasi Indonesia (KI), the national affiliate of Conservation International and host of the symposium, told reporters. “We barely pay attention to it, even though its ecological, biological and ecosystem service roles are strategically important.” In Indonesia, Victor added, “this is the ecosystem most often sacrificed, that’s why I call it the forgotten ecosystem, one that most people don’t even know about.” Seagrass meadows are a crucial habitat for dugongs. Image courtesy of Tutus Wijanarko/WWF-Indonesia. Seagrasses, distinct from seaweeds, are flowering plants that thrive beneath shallow coastal waters and form vital nurseries for juvenile fish and shelter for marine life such as crabs, prawns and sea cucumbers. Together with mangroves and coral reefs, these meadows help trap carbon, filter land-based runoff, and buffer shorelines from erosion. Across the world, more than 70 seagrass species blanket roughly 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of ocean floor, an expanse&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/seagrass-meadows-marine-conservation-indonesia-blue-carbon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/seagrass-meadows-marine-conservation-indonesia-blue-carbon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308768</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s most vulnerable push for nation’s first Climate Justice Bill</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesias-most-vulnerable-push-for-nations-first-climate-justice-bill/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesias-most-vulnerable-push-for-nations-first-climate-justice-bill/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2025 01:23:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/23012002/IMG_1666-2048x1150-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308157</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Kalimantan, North Maluku, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Environment, Human Migration, Human Rights, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Law, Migration, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — “Going to Dubai was an act of desperation,” says Muninggar, a 48-year-old former fish farmer from northern Java. “There were no jobs left in the village. If I wasn’t forced to, I wouldn’t have gone — my kids were still small.” Like many Indonesians on the frontlines of climate change, Muninggar has seen [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — “Going to Dubai was an act of desperation,” says Muninggar, a 48-year-old former fish farmer from northern Java. “There were no jobs left in the village. If I wasn’t forced to, I wouldn’t have gone — my kids were still small.” Like many Indonesians on the frontlines of climate change, Muninggar has seen erratic weather and rising temperatures destroy her livelihood, forcing her to migrate in search of a living. Her story echoes those of Indigenous farmers in Borneo and disabled fishers in eastern Indonesia, all facing the same reality: the climate crisis is deepening inequality and displacing those least responsible for it. Now, these communities are uniting to demand that climate justice be recognized as a constitutional right — part of a growing movement behind Indonesia’s first proposed Climate Justice Bill. Indonesia&#8217;s marginalized communities march to demand stronger climate action from the government in Jakarta in August 2025. Image courtesy of People&#8217;s Alliance for Climate Justice (ARUKI). Migrant workers Over the course of a few years, increasingly erratic weather devastated Muninggar’s fish ponds. “During the dry season, the seawater didn’t rise high enough, turning the pond water yellow. When that happened, the fish, shrimp and crabs died — I suffered total harvest failure,” she says. She took out a bank loan to stay afloat, but after five years of unpredictable weather and mounting losses, she was forced to close her pond, as were many of her neighbors. In September 2021, she chose to seek work abroad as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesias-most-vulnerable-push-for-nations-first-climate-justice-bill/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesias-most-vulnerable-push-for-nations-first-climate-justice-bill/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308157</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia court clears wildfire scientists in case brought by palm oil company</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-court-clears-wildfire-scientists-in-case-brought-by-palm-oil-company/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-court-clears-wildfire-scientists-in-case-brought-by-palm-oil-company/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Oct 2025 07:53:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rendy Tisna]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/17071230/wildfire-scientists-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307872</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forests, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Science, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A lower court in the Jakarta suburb of Bogor ruled in October in favor of environmental scientists Bambang Hero Saharjo and Basuki Wasis, dismissing a lawsuit brought by Borneo plantation firm PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri over a wildfire more than seven years ago. “Hopefully this will set a good precedent to protect environmental defenders and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A lower court in the Jakarta suburb of Bogor ruled in October in favor of environmental scientists Bambang Hero Saharjo and Basuki Wasis, dismissing a lawsuit brought by Borneo plantation firm PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri over a wildfire more than seven years ago. “Hopefully this will set a good precedent to protect environmental defenders and activists and enable the effort to rescue the deteriorating environment without the threat of pressure and lawsuits,” Bambang told Mongabay Indonesia in response to the ruling. Bambang and Basuki are professors at Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Indonesia’s premier forestry university. The government has frequently called on both academics to provide testimony as expert witnesses in wildfires cases brought by the forestry ministry against plantation companies. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry brought a case against PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri, which was heard in the Kapuas district court in Central Kalimantan province. The government alleged the company was culpable for a fire covering 833 hectares (2,058 acres) using the principle of “strict liability,” which holds companies ultimately responsible for any damage. In court, the government relied on peatland samples measured by Bambang, who is head of the wildfires laboratory at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, from several sites on the PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri concession taken during November 2018. The court judgment noted testimony that the area burned was approximately 833 hectares (2,058 acres), which was both Bambang’s conclusion and “in accordance with the results of measurements by the Central Kalimantan Provincial Plantation Service.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-court-clears-wildfire-scientists-in-case-brought-by-palm-oil-company/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307872</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Connecting Indonesia’s environmental stories to millions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/connecting-indonesias-environmental-stories-to-millions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/connecting-indonesias-environmental-stories-to-millions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Oct 2025 16:06:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/13144449/Akhyari-Hananto-20230927_111532-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307481</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conversations with Mongabay leaders]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Java, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Green, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, and Interviews With Environmental Journalists]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Before dawn breaks over Surabaya, Indonesia’s “City of Heroes,” Akhyari Hananto has already begun his day. After morning prayers, he opens Google Analytics to scan real-time graphs showing how Mongabay Indonesia’s readers moved through the night—what stories caught their attention, which posts resonated, and where curiosity waned. “That information often determines how I’ll prioritize my [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Before dawn breaks over Surabaya, Indonesia’s “City of Heroes,” Akhyari Hananto has already begun his day. After morning prayers, he opens Google Analytics to scan real-time graphs showing how Mongabay Indonesia’s readers moved through the night—what stories caught their attention, which posts resonated, and where curiosity waned. “That information often determines how I’ll prioritize my work for the rest of the day,” he says. By the time most people are pouring their first cup of coffee, he has already drafted ideas to re-energize audiences across the country. As Multimedia Manager for Mongabay Indonesia, Hananto sits at the intersection of creativity, data, and strategy. His job blends newsroom production, design, and analytics. On any given day, he may be editing multimedia, managing the outlet’s social media presence, or translating insights from Google Analytics into tactical decisions for Mongabay’s headquarters. “Everything I do connects to one central mission,” he explains, “ensuring that Mongabay’s environmental journalism reaches, engages, and resonates with audiences across Indonesia.” That mission has become increasingly important in a nation whose 280 million people live amid some of the planet’s richest biodiversity—and where forests, peatlands, and coral reefs are rapidly disappearing. For Hananto, who joined Mongabay in 2014, making environmental issues accessible is not just professional work; it is personal. “As an Indonesian, it’s impossible not to care,” he says. “These issues are not distant or abstract—they’re unfolding right here, on our own islands.” Akhyari Hananto. Courtesy of Hananto Hananto’s path to journalism was far from conventional. As a university&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/connecting-indonesias-environmental-stories-to-millions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307481</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia eyes seagrass zoning for blue carbon; experts urge community benefits</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-eyes-seagrass-zoning-for-blue-carbon-experts-urge-community-benefits/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-eyes-seagrass-zoning-for-blue-carbon-experts-urge-community-benefits/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2025 08:39:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/07122243/2847d35f-7bed-4686-8e25-62053ac6a0a4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307028</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Kalimantan, Papua, Southeast Asia, Sulawesi, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Seagrass]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s push to legalize a blue carbon zoning plan that’s focused on seagrass has sparked optimism for climate solutions, but some experts debate its risks and safeguards. The Indonesian Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has been drafting new amendments to a 2019 government regulation to designate 17 seagrass habitats across the archipelago as certain &#8220;national [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s push to legalize a blue carbon zoning plan that’s focused on seagrass has sparked optimism for climate solutions, but some experts debate its risks and safeguards. The Indonesian Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has been drafting new amendments to a 2019 government regulation to designate 17 seagrass habitats across the archipelago as certain &#8220;national strategic areas&#8221; (KSNT), giving them priority status for sovereignty, environmental protection and global heritage. The ministry’s director-general of marine spatial management, Kartika Listriana, said the zoning plan for Blue Carbon Reserves was a pledge to fight the climate crisis, protect ocean ecosystems and support coastal communities. “Marine spatial planning is meant to create real benefits,” she said in a Sept. 14 press release, “from giving investors legal certainty in the marine and fisheries sectors to improving community welfare to safeguarding our coasts and seas.” Mangrove and seagrass ecosystems in northern Nias Island. Image courtesy of Eko Siswono Toyudho/Konservasi Indonesia. Indonesia is moving to designate 17 seagrass habitats as national strategic areas for blue carbon, a plan that promises climate and community benefits but raises concerns over safeguards. Image courtesy of Eko Siswono Toyudho/Konservasi Indonesia. Indonesia holds about 11.5% of the world’s seagrass meadows, a resource the government hopes to tap to expand its carbon storage capacity. Scientists estimate that, per unit area, seagrass can capture carbon up to 35 times more effectively than tropical rainforests. According to the ministry, 17 sites have been earmarked as indicative KSNT locations for blue carbon reserves under the 2025-45&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-eyes-seagrass-zoning-for-blue-carbon-experts-urge-community-benefits/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-eyes-seagrass-zoning-for-blue-carbon-experts-urge-community-benefits/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307028</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Americans’ love of RVs tied to destruction of orangutan habitat: Investigation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/americans-love-of-rvs-tied-to-destruction-of-orangutan-habitat-investigation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/americans-love-of-rvs-tied-to-destruction-of-orangutan-habitat-investigation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2025 11:03:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/08/14034755/kalteng_0891-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305644</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, North America, Southeast Asia, United States, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Industry, International Trade, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Global calls are mounting for RV companies in the U.S. to change their policies following new revelations that some of America’s best-selling RVs are built with plywood from the destruction of orangutan habitat in Indonesian Borneo. While companies like Winnebago say they’re now “working quickly to better understand the concerns raised,” environmentalists warn [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Global calls are mounting for RV companies in the U.S. to change their policies following new revelations that some of America’s best-selling RVs are built with plywood from the destruction of orangutan habitat in Indonesian Borneo. While companies like Winnebago say they’re now “working quickly to better understand the concerns raised,” environmentalists warn that corporate and regulatory inaction continues to drive the loss of Indonesia’s rainforests. Two reports — by U.K.-based NGO Earthsight and Indonesian environmental group Auriga Nusantara as well as U.S.-based campaign group Mighty Earth — trace how tropical timber from rainforest clearance in Indonesia enters the supply chains of leading U.S. RV makers, including Jayco, Winnebago and Forest River. The findings highlight governance gaps in Indonesia, where forest clearing for industrial concessions remains legal, and regulatory weaknesses in the U.S., whose laws prohibit illegal logging but not legal deforestation. Since the investigations were published, Mighty Earth has published a petition to urge RV companies to change their timber sourcing policies to exclude any wood from deforestation. The online petition seeks 1,500 signatures and so far has garnered more than 1,000. “Before it&#8217;s too late, it&#8217;s time to protect our rainforests, uphold the rights of Indigenous communities, and save the incredible animals that live there,” the petition says. “Tell RV CEOs: We demand that you only use deforestation-free and Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood in your supply chains and RV manufacture.” Tropical forest cleared by PT Indosubur Sukses Makmur in Borneo, January 2025. Image courtesy of Auriga /&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/americans-love-of-rvs-tied-to-destruction-of-orangutan-habitat-investigation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305644</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study maps rare Borneo forests with unique habitats &#038; urgent need for protection</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/study-maps-rare-borneo-forests-with-unique-habitats-urgent-need-for-protection/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/study-maps-rare-borneo-forests-with-unique-habitats-urgent-need-for-protection/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 02:19:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/12094955/Heath-Forest_Bernat-Ripoll-Capilla-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304113</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Gold Mining, Mining, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Protected Areas, Research, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In their latest study, a group of researchers from Indonesia, the U.K., and the U.S. find that heath forests (locally known as kerangas) span 16,586 square kilometers (6,400 square miles) — almost the size of Hawaii’s land area — across Kalimantan. This figure suggests about a 33% loss of forest cover since a 1996 estimate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[In their latest study, a group of researchers from Indonesia, the U.K., and the U.S. find that heath forests (locally known as kerangas) span 16,586 square kilometers (6,400 square miles) — almost the size of Hawaii’s land area — across Kalimantan. This figure suggests about a 33% loss of forest cover since a 1996 estimate of 24,750 km² (9,550 mi²), they write in a paper published July 16 in Cambridge University Press’ Journal of Tropical Ecology. The authors say their research offered a baseline by clarifying the mosaic structure of lowland kerangas and highlighting their distinct role as a unique habitat within the landscape, given limited research on these forests and the resulting gaps in understanding the effects of human pressures and conservation measures. “Research into kerangas forest coverage in Kalimantan was inspired by our discovery of the Rungan forest landscape’s fascinating forest and exceptional conservation value,” Namrata Biligeri Anirudh, a Ph.D. ecologist from the University of Indonesia who is the paper’s lead author, told Mongabay in an email interview. A new study mapping lowland heath forests (kerangas) in Indonesian Borneo reveals major changes in their extent and limited formal protection. Image courtesy of Bernat Ripoll Capilla. Anirudh noted that the landscape was nestled between the Rungan and Kahayan rivers in Central Kalimantan, serving as home to an extraordinary variety of endangered plants and animals, thanks to its rare mix of heath forests on sandy soils, swamps, lowland forests and abundant Borneo ironwood (Eusideroxylon zwageri). “The fact that such a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/study-maps-rare-borneo-forests-with-unique-habitats-urgent-need-for-protection/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304113</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian palm oil company sues experts who helped secure $18m pollution ruling</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indonesian-palm-oil-company-sues-experts-who-helped-secure-18m-pollution-ruling/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indonesian-palm-oil-company-sues-experts-who-helped-secure-18m-pollution-ruling/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 11:31:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/22123507/borneo-Dayak-fire-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303123</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Air Pollution, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forests, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two of Indonesia’s most prominent environmental experts are facing a lawsuit that activists say is part of a wider trend of silencing scientists who testify against environmental violators. Bambang Hero Saharjo and Basuki Wasis, both veteran forensics experts whose testimonies have helped convict major polluters, are being sued by PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two of Indonesia’s most prominent environmental experts are facing a lawsuit that activists say is part of a wider trend of silencing scientists who testify against environmental violators. Bambang Hero Saharjo and Basuki Wasis, both veteran forensics experts whose testimonies have helped convict major polluters, are being sued by PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri (KLM), a palm oil company they helped hold accountable for massive fires in Central Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo. Their expert testimony and damage assessments have proved crucial in securing rulings against environmental offenders. By calculating the cost of ecological destruction, they help judges assign real value to environmental losses — evidence often used to prove corporate liability or even corruption. Bambang has testified as an expert in more than 500 environmental destruction cases, and is currently assisting in more than 15 cases — from fires that spew toxic haze, to mining-caused floods and landslides. The KLM case stems from 2018, when the Indonesian government sued the company for fires that burned 511 hectares (1,263 acres) of its concession in Central Kalimantan. Those fires contributed to the toxic haze crisis that routinely blankets parts of Indonesia and neighboring countries during the dry season, causing widespread respiratory illness, school closures and flight cancellations. Peatland fires in particular release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, making them a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions and regional air pollution. A court found KLM liable for the fires and ordered it to pay 89 billion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indonesian-palm-oil-company-sues-experts-who-helped-secure-18m-pollution-ruling/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303123</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study finds worrying uptick in proboscis monkey trade in Indonesia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/study-finds-worrying-uptick-in-proboscis-monkey-trade-in-indonesia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/study-finds-worrying-uptick-in-proboscis-monkey-trade-in-indonesia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jul 2025 17:47:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/18153442/proboscis-monkey-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302807</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Brunei, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environmental Law, Forests, Fragmentation, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Monkeys, Pet Trade, Poaching, Primates, Regulations, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With its long, pendulous nose, characteristic pot belly and large size, the odd-looking, leaf-eating proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) may not feature on the list of the world’s cutest animals. Yet, this endangered primate, a Borneo native living along rivers and swampy mangrove forests, seems to have gained newfound appeal in recent years in the international [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[With its long, pendulous nose, characteristic pot belly and large size, the odd-looking, leaf-eating proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) may not feature on the list of the world’s cutest animals. Yet, this endangered primate, a Borneo native living along rivers and swampy mangrove forests, seems to have gained newfound appeal in recent years in the international wildlife trade, according to a study published in the journal Discover Animals. The researchers searched the internet for media reports of seizures, social media ads and legal trade data from CITES — the international wildlife trade agreement — relating to proboscis monkeys between 1999 and 2024. They found about a hundred individuals in the illegal trade, all from Indonesia. There was a marked uptick in the trade in the last decade, with nearly half of the individuals traded listed on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. In addition, zoos in Indonesia were found to have increasingly acquired these monkeys since 2016, possibly from the wild. The researchers say this surge in trade could have repercussions for the conservation of this endangered species. Proboscis monkeys are legally protected in all three countries where they are found: Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. It is illegal to keep, buy or sell them or their parts. The species is also listed on CITES Appendix I, which prohibits all international commercial trade, except for exchanges between zoos and for scientific research. While proboscis monkeys have been on study co-author Vincent Nijman’s radar since his Ph.D. research nearly three decades&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/study-finds-worrying-uptick-in-proboscis-monkey-trade-in-indonesia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302807</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian civil society urges probe after payout for mine recovery that never happened</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indonesian-civil-society-urges-probe-after-payout-for-mine-recovery-that-never-happened/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indonesian-civil-society-urges-probe-after-payout-for-mine-recovery-that-never-happened/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2025 07:44:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Muhibar Sobary Ardan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/10071442/Rukka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302173</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Bioenergy, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Coal, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Just Transition, Politics, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SAMARINDA, Indonesia — The prosecution of a former head of mining in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province could reveal wider misuse of environmental restoration funds across the country’s coal heartland, a prominent environmental lawyer said in June. “I see that there’s the potential for there to be others, so I recommend that law enforcement officers audit [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SAMARINDA, Indonesia — The prosecution of a former head of mining in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province could reveal wider misuse of environmental restoration funds across the country’s coal heartland, a prominent environmental lawyer said in June. “I see that there’s the potential for there to be others, so I recommend that law enforcement officers audit all these mining pits,” said Muhammad Muhdar, an environmental lawyer at Mulawarman University in Samarinda, the provincial capital. Last month, the East Kalimantan prosecutor’s office announced it would charge Amrullah, the head of the provincial mining agency, in connection with an alleged decade-old conspiracy pertaining to coal miner CV Arjuna. Located in the east of Borneo Island, East Kalimantan accounts for more coal production than any other province in Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal. Coal production across Indonesia increased to 831 million metric tons in 2024, an all-time high. Amrullah had served as head of the energy and minerals department in East Kalimantan from 2010-2018. Arjuna operated a 1,452-hectare (3,588-acre) coal mine in Makroman village, within the Samarinda city limits, on the east coast of Borneo. The company was required by law to conduct environmental reclamation work to seal the mine on reaching the end of its operating permit. “To my knowledge, this is probably the first case where someone has been charged in relation to corruption of reclamation funds in East Kalimantan,” Muhdar said. “So it would be good for us to jointly monitor the process in order to assist our&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indonesian-civil-society-urges-probe-after-payout-for-mine-recovery-that-never-happened/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302173</doi>				</item>
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