Forests and Indonesia News

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A young ring-tailed glider (Tous ayamaruensis). Image courtesy of Arman Muharmansyah.

Species thought extinct for thousands of years ‘rediscovered’ thanks to Indigenous knowledge

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Apr 2026
Nickel mining on Manuran Island. Image courtesy of Auriga Nusantara.

Deforestation is surging in Indonesia

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Apr 2026

EU deforestation law nudges timber trade, Indonesia probe shows, but risks persist

Hans Nicholas Jong 17 Apr 2026

Indonesia’s plan to rezone national park sparks backlash

Mongabay.com 9 Apr 2026
Residents use canoes to navigate the floodwaters in Banjar Regency.

Indonesia reviews firms in river basins after latest floods affect 7% of Bornean province

Riyad Dafhi Rizki 31 Mar 2026
Dump trucks maneuver at Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park in North Maluku province, June 2024.

US-Indonesia trade deal slammed as ‘extractive colonialism’ over mining, fossil fuels

Hans Nicholas Jong 27 Mar 2026
Biruté Mary Galdikas. Photo courtesy of Orangutan Foundation International

Birutė Galdikas, primatologist who spent a lifetime studying & defending orangutans, has died at 79

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Mar 2026

Palm oil clearing advances in Bornean orangutan habitat despite red flags

Hans Nicholas Jong 26 Mar 2026

Indonesia plan to rezone elephant reserve for carbon trading and tourism sparks backlash

Hans Nicholas Jong 19 Mar 2026

Indonesian communities push to reclaim lands following company permit revocations

Tonggo Simangunsong 6 Mar 2026

Indigenous communities oppose Papua forest rezoning for palm oil

Hans Nicholas Jong 25 Feb 2026
A domesticated Sumatran elephant with its mahout in Tesso Nilo National Park.

Indonesia says intervention in notorious Sumatran national park part of new ‘model’

Suryadi 17 Feb 2026
A firefighter puts out fires in a peatland in Indonesia.

Thousands of peat fires flare across Indonesia despite rainy season

Hans Nicholas Jong 13 Feb 2026

What the forest reveals from above

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Feb 2026
Drained, cleared, and burned peat forest in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

The fair costs for forest rehabilitation in Indonesia (commentary)

Aida Greenbury 2 Feb 2026
Papuan Indigenous people and activists hold a protest against Merauke Food Estate in front of the Defense Ministry office in Jakarta in 2024.

Indonesia fast-tracks final permit for Papua rice megaproject without Indigenous consent

Hans Nicholas Jong 29 Jan 2026
The Dayak Bahau community in Long Isun expresses its complaint. Image courtesy of Accountability Counsel.

World Bank carbon program risks further infringing upon rights of Indonesian Indigenous community (commentary)

Fuat Edi Kurniawan, Sadar Ginting, Anna Christi Suwardi 28 Jan 2026
Nayla Azmii, founder of Nuraga Bhumi, and her colleagues posing for the camera.

Sumatra’s female forest protectors

Izzy Sasada 22 Jan 2026
A man holds a chicken as he walks on log used as a makeshift bridge at a village affected by a flash flood in Batang Toru, Dec. 1.

Indonesia revokes forest and mine permits over role in deadly Sumatra landslides

Hans Nicholas Jong 22 Jan 2026
A Bangka slow loris (Nycticebus bancanus).

For two of the world’s most at-risk primates, threats abound and the future looks grim

Mino Rakotovao 20 Jan 2026
Flood survivors use logs to cross a river in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on Dec. 2, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara.

Indonesia sues 6 companies over alleged links to deadly floods & landslides

Hans Nicholas Jong 19 Jan 2026
Forest illegally cleared for oil palm in Riau Province. Photo by Rhett A Butler

Indonesia says 4 million hectares of plantation, mining lands reclaimed in crackdown

Hans Nicholas Jong 14 Jan 2026
A man inspects logs near several wood pellet production companies in Gorontalo province, October 2024.

After years of progress, Indonesia risks ‘tragedy’ of a deforestation spike

Jeff Hutton 14 Jan 2026
Tame Sumatran elephants were brought in to help clean up flood-affected residential areas in Meunasah Bie village, Meurah Dua district, Pidie Jaya.

A catastrophe that might offer a glimpse of hope for Indonesia (commentary)

Aida Greenbury 11 Jan 2026
Rescuers search for victims at the site of a landslide in Suwawa on Sulawesi Island in July 2024.

Indonesia’s illegal gold boom leaves a toxic legacy of mercury pollution

Sarjan Lahay, Junaidi Hanafiah, Teguh Suprayitno 7 Jan 2026
A community settlement in Pidie Jaya Regency, destroyed by flooding.

Indonesia launches sweeping environmental audits after Sumatra flood disaster

Hans Nicholas Jong 7 Jan 2026
A woman stands near a shop damaged during a flood in Aceh province, Indonesia, Nov. 29, 2025.

Indonesia closes 2025 with rising disasters and stalled environmental reform

Hans Nicholas Jong 30 Dec 2025
Rainforest in Brunei in 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Dec 2025

A flood of logs post-Cyclone Senyar leaves Padang fishers out of work

Jaka Hendra Baittri 20 Dec 2025
Misty morning in Borneo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Rethinking how we talk about conservation—and why it matters

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Dec 2025

Tapanuli orangutan, devastated by cyclone, now faces habitat loss under zoning plans

Hans Nicholas Jong, Achmad Rizki Muazam 18 Dec 2025

From Kalimantan’s haze to Jakarta’s grit: A journalist’s journey

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Dec 2025

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