Forests and Indonesia News

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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
Salam came here from North Sulawesi 10 years ago and now has a farm of 1,200 peppercorn trees.

Worries grow for Sulawesi farmers as nickel mining company plans expansion

Richard Kent 29 Jan 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

Five detained over alleged hunting in Javan leopard habitat

Basten Gokkon 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
In this aerial photo taken using a drone, people are seen making their way on a muddy road at a village affected by a flash flood in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. Photo credit: AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara

After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster

Hans Nicholas Jong 6 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

Taboo against harming strangler fig spirits protects forests in Indonesian Borneo

Liz Kimbrough 22 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
Sumatran rhino. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

Pulp giant RGE admits possible deforestation breach in Bornean wildlife habitat

Hans Nicholas Jong 19 Dec 2025
The presence of Sumatran elephants is intended to help transport wood left over from the flood.

Tsunami veteran rescue elephants mobilized for Indonesia cyclone disaster relief

Junaidi Hanafiah 19 Dec 2025

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

Hans Nicholas Jong, Achmad Rizki Muazam 18 Dec 2025
Musofa arrived at the Javan Rhino Study and Conservation Area (JRSCA). Image courtesy of Ujung Kulon National Park Authority.

Indonesia’s 1st Javan rhino translocation ends in death, in conservation setback

Basten Gokkon 16 Dec 2025

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

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Dec 2025

Green labeler PEFC under fire for certifying Indonesian firm clearing orangutan habitat

Hans Nicholas Jong 15 Dec 2025
Survivors inspect clothings they salvaged at a village affected by a flash flood in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Sumatra’s ‘natural’ disaster wasn’t natural: How deforestation turned a rare cyclone catastrophic

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Dec 2025
A mother and infant Tapanuli orangutan were directly sighted in the Lumut Maju peat swamp forest in North Sumatra. Image by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay-Indonesia.

Sumatran flood disaster may have wiped out a key Tapanuli orangutan population, scientists fear

Hans Nicholas Jong 12 Dec 2025
Men stand on logs swept away by flash flood in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Dec. 2.

Death toll rises in Sumatra flood catastrophe as gov’t moves to protect Batang Toru forest

Achmad Rizki Muazam, Ayat S. Karokaro, Taufik Wijaya 9 Dec 2025
A Bornean orangutan.

Indigenous Dayak sound alarm as palm oil firm razes orangutan habitat in Borneo

Hans Nicholas Jong 2 Dec 2025
Cleared forest in the foreground, rainforest in the background in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

Saving forests won’t be enough if fossil fuels beneath them are still extracted, experts warn

Hans Nicholas Jong 26 Nov 2025
An Annamite striped rabbit in a breeding facility in Thailand.

Already disappearing, Southeast Asia’s striped rabbits now caught in global pet trade

Spoorthy Raman 25 Nov 2025

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