KUCHING: Indonesia’s primary forest loss has dropped by 11 per cent to an estimated 260,000 hectares in 2024, down from 290,000 hectares in 2023.
This trend differs from the global situation which has seen a record increase in primary rainforest loss of approximately 6.7 million hectares last year, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI) Global Forest Watch report, drawing on data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD).
The WRI report indicates that most of the primary forest loss in Indonesia occurred near logging concessions, oil palm plantations, small-scale agriculture and mining areas or as a result of the expansion of logging activities.
Some provinces, including Sumata, especially Aceh, Bengkulu and South Sumatra as well as Papua, experienced minimal increases in their loss rates.
Additionally, some primary forest loss was noted in several protected areas, such as Kerinci Seblat National Park, Tesso Nilo and Leuser ecosystem in Aceh.
The year 2024 also marks the end of President Joko Widodo’s leadership period.
Jokowi’s second term was marked by several efforts to protect forests and restore degraded forest areas.
However, the area of forest lost had touched a record high in the first period of his presidency, which was 930,000 hectares in 2016.
According to the WRI report, declines in primary forest loss have also occurred in several other Southeast Asian countries.
For example, Malaysia saw a 13 per cent decline in 2024 as compared to the previous year, and for the first time dropped out of the list of the 10 countries with the largest forest losses.
Despite these positive trends, Malaysia has lost almost a fifth of its primary forests since 2001 and almost a third since the 1970s.
“The government’s efforts to limit plantation expansion and tighten forestry laws are now underpinned by corporate commitments to reduce deforestation,” said the report.
The International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) Tropical Timber Market Report (May 16-31, 2025) has reported on this.
Meanwhile, although primary forest loss in Laos fell by 15 per cent in 2024, last year’s total loss remained the second highest in history.
For this country, the loss of primary forest is mainly driven by agricultural expansion largely due to investments from China, which is a major importer of Laotian agricultural products.
The poor economic situation is also suspected to encourage local farmers to open new agricultural land in forest areas due to the high cost of basic necessities, added the WRI report.
Meanwhile, the ITTO report quoted Ruandha Sugardinman, senior adviser to Indonesia’s Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) Net Sink 2030 working team at the Forestry Ministry, in clarifying that the country’s primary forests would not be converted for food or energy purposes.
Indonesia has announced plans to open up 20.6 million hectares of land for food security projects, and the areas designated for food land will consist of non-productive forests.
Ruandha said some of the land designated for the food or energy projects is secondary forests consisting of shrubs or several forest locations that are indeed vacant land.
If any new land is to be opened from productive forests, he said the clearing would not exceed five per cent of the total productive forests in Indonesia.
The ministry said the opening up of land for food security project would be implemented into stages, for example this year it needs only 5,000 hectares.
“The government has confirmed that it will conduct an environmental impact analysis and that it is committed to achieving net zero deforestation.
“Therefore, when there is forest clearing for agricultural land, there will be a corresponding commitment to replanting in other areas,” said Ruandha.
Separately, the Indonesian Environment Forum (WALHI) assesses that the plan to clear 20 million hectares of forest for food and energy will be the largest deforestation legalisation project in Indonesia’s history.
“If only 4.5 million hectares of natural forests are cleared, it will release 2.59 billion tons of carbon emissions, then it can be accumulated how much emissions will be released from the 20 million hectares of forests that will be cleared,” it said in a media statement.
According to WALHI, this plan is contrary to Indonesia’s global commitment to biodiversity protection, emission reduction through the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) scheme, and the recognition and protection of indigenous peoples as mandated in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
In addition, it pointed out that this plan is also contrary to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry itself regarding the FOLU Net Sink 2030, which should target reducing emissions from the forestry and land sectors.
On a related matter, the Indonesia Forestry Entrepreneurs Association is intensifying efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change by introducing Indonesia’s huge potential for tropical forestbased carbon trading at this year’s World Expo Osaka, Japan.
In a recent business forum attended by stakeholders from the public and private sectors from both Indonesia and Japan, the association presented the FOLU Net Sink 2030, the government’s flagship programme, which targets the forestry and land use sectors to become net emission absorbers by 2030.
During the forum, the implementation of the Mutual Recognition Arrangement between Indonesia and Japan was discussed which would allow cross-country recognition of carbon certification.
The move is intended to create opportunities for Japanese investors in naturebased carbon projects, such as peat restoration and mangrove rehabilitation.
