A fire burns on an oil palm plantation in Borneo. Photo: Rhett A. Butler With dry season in full swing, Indonesia's new environment and forestry minister flew in a helicopter…
Indonesian authorities caught a prominent wildlife trafficker with this baby orangutan in his bag in February, leading to his conviction last week. The sentence has been hailed as a win…
A sign in the Indonesian village of Wambi in Papua province's Merauke district says locals reject the presence of any company. Merauke is the site of a planned food and…
Warning: Some images in this story contain graphic content. Residents of the Indonesian village of Sibide pose with a dead Sumatran tiger, a critically endangered species. Pictures of the photo…
Dead pangolins seized by customs authorities at Surabaya's Juanda International Airport. Photo: Petrus Riski Indonesian customs officials foiled an attempt to smuggle 455 dead pangolins to Singapore from an airport…
Police in Indonesia’s second city of Surabaya, a hotbed of wildlife trafficking, seized 16 eagles of various types from a trafficker who was using Facebook to connect with potential customers.…
Deforestation for oil palm in Indonesia's Riau province. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Palm oil giant First Resources has committed to eliminate deforestation and rights abuses from its supply chain, making…
An oil palm development bordering Indonesia's Mount Leuser National Park. Photo: Rhett A. Butler A supplier of palm oil giants Wilmar and Musim Mas has continued to bulldoze valuable forest…
Residents of Paser, a district in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province, protest against a coal mining company in February. Photo courtesy of the Indigenous People's Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) A…
A rainforest river in Malaysia's Sabah state. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Sateri has become the latest major viscose producer to adopt a new wood- and pulp-sourcing policy aimed at removing…
A lowland jungle stream in Java's Ujung Kulon National Park. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Twenty years after ratifying a legally binding UN convention which obligates parties to deal with invasive…
by 26 June 2015
A forest is cleared for oil palm in Bulohseuma in Indonesia's Aceh province. Photo: Chik Rini Encroachers have been clearing forest at three locations in Aceh's biggest peat swamp since…
The Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) met Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in Jakarta yesterday. From left, AMAN Secretary General Abdon Nababan, New Perspectives Foundation founder Wimar Witoelar…
An aerial view of rainforest in Indonesia's Riau province. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Indonesia's Environment and Forestry Ministry might upgrade the partial logging moratorium from a presidential instruction to a…
by 25 June 2015
A vendor checks his phone at the Jatinegara bird market in East Jakarta. Photo: Harry Pearl The Indonesian shop owner turns and motions to the back of the grubby, concrete-floor…
A coal barge passes the Masjid Islamic Center in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. Photo: David Fogarty A few months before BHP Billiton’s Haju mine is set to begin operations in Indonesia’s…
A body of water in Aru, a cluster of about 90 islands in eastern Indonesia. Photo: FWI-AMAN The Indonesian agriculture minister's recent comments that the Aru archipelago in the country's…
An open-pit coal mine in Indonesia's Bengkulu province. Photo: Taufik Wijaya The governor of Indonesia's Bengkulu province reiterated his commitment to bringing mining in the province under control, as environmentalists…
by 15 June 2015
As the rush for land in Southeast Asia continues at breakneck speed, often bringing with it social and environmental destruction, a new study by a major environmental research group explores…
Rainforest in Indonesia's Riau province. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Weak spatial planning and law enforcement, land tenure problems and a lack of transparency in licensing are some of the issues…
Protesters donned elephant costumes last month for a demonstration outside the Mandarin Oriental's London branch after the launch of the She's Not a Fan campaign targeting the luxury hotel chain's…
A logged-out forest in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province. Photo: Rhett A. Butler The reputation of oil palm business group Sawit Sumbermas Sarana (SSS), a holding of one of Indonesia's richest…
Mukhtar used to be an illegal logger. Now he coordinates community forest rangers in Aceh. Photo: Rizal Purba In his former life, Mukhtar made a living felling trees illegally. He…
Environment and Forestry Ministry officials line up at the inauguration ceremony for new director-generals last week. From left, ministry Secretary-General Bambang Hendroyono, Environmental and Forestry Spatial Planning Director-General San Afri…
Officers from Indonesia's Natural Resources Conservation Agency carry a dead tiger in West Sumatra. Two of the critically endangered creatures have turned up dead in the province this year. Photo:…
Peatland cleared for palm oil outside Palangkaraya in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province. Photo: Rhett Butler The charity that Indonesia's Golden Agri-Resources has enlisted to devise and implement its zero-deforestation and…
Forest clearing for oil palm in Sumatra. Photo: Rhett Butler The Mandarin Oriental hotel chain has landed in environmentalists' crosshairs for the practices of its sister company Astra Agro Lestari,…
'Copy-paste' not good enough for civil society groups calling for the policy to be strengthened A Greenpeace activist dons a mask of Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in a smoldering…
A Sumatran elephant of the sort that lives in the Leuser Ecosystem. Photo: Rhett A. Butler A new report provides evidence that a supplier of palm oil giants Wilmar and…