Deforestation in Indonesia involves the long-term loss of forests and foliage across much of the country; it has had massive environmental and social impacts. Indonesia is home to some of the most biologically diverse forests in the world and ranks third in number of species behind Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.ABC Four Corners: Background information on Indonesia, deforestation and illegal logging , Retrieved 28 May 2010
As late as 1900, Indonesia was still a densely forested country: forests represented 84 percent of the total land area. Deforestation intensified in the 1970s and has accelerated further since then. The estimated forest cover of 170 million hectares around 1900 decreased to less than 100 million hectares by the end of the 20th century.Matthews, Emilly (ed.): The State of Forests Indonesia, Bogor 2002, Retrieved 28 May 2010 In 2008, it was estimated that tropical rainforests in Indonesia would be logged out in a decade.China is black hole of Asia's deforestation, Asia News, 24 March 2008 Of the total logging in Indonesia, up to 80% is reported to be performed illegally.Riskanalys av glas, järn, betong och gips 29 March 2011. s.19–20
Large areas of forest in Indonesia have been cleared by large multinational pulp companies, such as Asia Pulp and Paper, and replaced by plantations. Forests are often burned by farmersSlash and burn, Encyclopedia of Earth and plantation owners. Another major source of deforestation is the logging industry, driven by demand from China and Japan. Agricultural development and transmigration programs moved large populations into rainforest areas, further increasing deforestation rates. The widespread deforestation (and other environmental destruction) in Indonesia is often described by academics as an ecocide.
Logging and the burning of forests to clear land for cultivation have historically made Indonesia one of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases, behind China and the United States. Forest fires often destroy major carbon sinks, including old-growth rainforest and peat swamp forests. In May 2011, Indonesia declared a moratorium on new logging contracts to help address deforestation."Indonesia's forest moratorium: A stepping stone to better forest governance?", CIFOR Working Paper 76, 2011 The policy initially had limited impact, and by 2012 Indonesia had surpassed Brazil’s deforestation rate, becoming the world’s fastest forest-clearing nation.Bachelard, Michael: "World's worst illegal logging in Indonesia", in The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 June 2014"Deforestation in Indonesia Is Double the Government's Official Rate", in Scientific American, 30 June 2014
In recent years, however, deforestation rates have declined. According to 2025 data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) Lab, Indonesia reduced primary forest loss by 11% from 2023 to 2024, reversing a steady increase seen between 2021 and 2023. Fires remained relatively mild, and total loss stayed well below the peaks recorded in the mid-2010s. The final year of President Joko Widodo’s administration saw continued emphasis on forest protection, restoration, and fire prevention, supported by government programs, local community initiatives, and private-sector efforts to reduce deforestation linked to commodities such as palm oil and timber. Most primary forest loss occurred near existing plantations, small-scale farms, and mining areas; with localized increases reported in several provinces, including Aceh, Bengkulu, and South Sumatra on Sumatra, as well as in Papua. Losses were also observed within protected areas such as Kerinci Seblat, Tesso Nilo, and the Leuser ecosystem.
In 2025, forest loss in Indonesia surged by 66%, reaching its highest rate in eight years.
History
The Indonesian archipelago of about 17,000 islands is home to some of the most biodiverse forests in the world. In 1900 the total forest represented 84% of the total land area. By 1950 plantations and smallholder plantings of tree crops still only covered a small area. The forest cover by that time is estimated to 145 million ha (hectares) of primary forest and another 14 million ha (hectares) of secondary and tidal forest.
In the early 1970s Indonesia used this valuable resource to its economic benefit with the development of the country's wood processing industries. From the late 1980s to 2000, production capacity has increased nearly 700% in the pulp and paper industries, making Indonesia the world's ninth largest pulp producer and eleventh largest paper producer.
The rate of deforestation continues to increase. The 2009 State Environment Report launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono revealed that the number of fire hotspots rose to 32,416 in 2009 from only 19,192 in 2008. The Environment Ministry blamed the increase on weak law enforcement and a lack of supervision from local authorities, with land clearance as the primary cause of the fires.
Between 1990 and 2000 20% of the forest area in Indonesia had been lost (24 million ha) and by 2010, only 52% of the total land area was forested (94 million ha).Staff (30 November 2011) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 – Trends in Extent of Forest 1990–2010 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Media Centre, Accessed 5 March 2012 Even despite a moratorium on new logging contracts imposed in 2010, the rate of deforestation continued to increase to an estimated 840,000 hectares in 2012, surpassing deforestation in Brazil.John Vidal: "Rate of deforestation in Indonesia overtakes Brazil, says study" in The Guardian, 30 June 2014 Deforestation in Indonesia peaked in 2016, and thereafter declined, falling by about 30% (comparing 2009–2016 with 2017–2019).Sebastian Kraus, Jacqueline Liu, Nicolas Koch, Sabine Fuss, No aggregate deforestation reductions from rollout of community land titles in Indonesia yet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (October 2021), 118 (43), doi:10.1073/pnas.2100741118. Studies attributed the decline to "a policy mix including bans on primary forest clearing and peat drainage, a review of land concessions, and a moratorium on new palm oil plantations and mines" as well as to oil palm sustainability certification programs for forests on existing plantations. Community forest titles were also issued for 2.4 million hectares across Indonesia, but a 2021 study did not find evidence that these programs reduced deforestation.
Drivers of deforestation
Over the years 2001–2022, the largest single driver of deforestation in Indonesia was palm oil plantations, accounting for about 70% of deforestation nationwide. Clearances for small-scale agriculture and small-scale mixed plantations accounted for a combined 22% of deforestation nationwide. Logging roads and small-scale clearings, followed by regrowth of secondary forest, accounted for about 10% of deforestation nationwide. All other causes (such as mining and fish ponds) collectively accounted for about 5% of deforestation nationwide.Kemen G. Austin, Amanda Schwantes, Yaofeng Gu & Prasad S. Kasibhatla, What causes deforestation in Indonesia?, Environmental Research Letters, Vol 14, No. 2 (2019).
In Indonesia, at least 3.3 million hectares of forest were turned into palm oil plantation. However, annual primary forest loss declined from 930,000 hectares in 2016 to 230,000 hectares in 2022. According to the new rules established by the government, landowners that grow oil palm plantation on production forest land will pay fines, while those who grow them on protected forest land will give them to government for being converted to forests again. 200,000 hectares of plantation will be converted to forest. Legal action will be taken against companies who grow the plantations illegally.
In 2024, nickel mining and processing was one of the main causes of deforestation in Indonesia.
Effects Rapid and increasing deforestation harms Indonesia's broad biodiversity and drives Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions, which are among the world's highest. The conversion and burning of peat soils causes severe air pollution, presenting major public health harms.
Affected regions
Indonesia's lowland tropical forests, the richest in timber resources and biodiversity, are most at risk. By 2000 they have been almost entirely cleared in Sulawesi, and predicted to disappear within few years in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
In Sumatra tens of thousands of square kilometres of forest have been destroyed often under central government concessions given to palm oil companies to remove the forest.Losing land to palm oil in Kalimantan, BBC News, 3 August 2007 In Kalimantan, from 1991 to 2014, large areas of the forest were burned because of uncontrollable fire causing atmospheric pollution across South-East Asia.
The construction of the Trans-Papua Highway is expected to open up large areas of rainforest in Western New Guinea to logging.
Illegal land clearing
A 2007 United Nations Environment Program report estimated that between 73% and 88% of timber logged in Indonesia is the result of illegal logging. Subsequent estimates were that between 40% and 55% of logged in Indonesia is the result of illegal logging.Jake Schmidt, Illegal Logging in Indonesia: The Environmental Economic and Social Costs. BlueGreen Alliance, April 2010. A 2021 study estimated that 81% of forest conversion for palm oil in Indonesia was illegal, and that Indonesia's Supreme Audit Agency determined that less than 20% of the nation's palm oil operations complied with national laws and regulations.Cassie Dummett, Arthur Blundell, Kerstin Canby, Michael Wolosin, and Eszter Bodnar, Report: Illicit Harvest, Complicit Goods: The State of Illegal Deforestation for Agriculture, Forest Policy, Trade, and Finance Initiative, Forest Trends Association, May 2021.
Malaysia is the key transit country for illegal wood products from Indonesia.Environmental Investigation Agency and Telepak (2004) Profiting from Plunder: How Malaysia Smuggles Endangered Wood.
Private corporations, motivated by economic profits from local and regional market demands for timber, are culpable for deforestation. These agro-industrial companies often do not comply with the basic legal regulations by inappropriately employing cost effective yet environmentally inefficient deforestation methods such as forest fires to clear the land for agricultural purposes. The 1999 Forestry Law states that it is essential for companies to be endorsed by authorities in respective regions with an IPK permit, a timber harvesting permit, for legal approval of their deforestation activities. Many of these corporations could circumvent this red tape, maximise revenue profits by employing illegal logging activities as lax law enforcement and porous law regulations in large developing countries like Indonesia undermine forestry conservation efforts.
In the social landscape, small-scale subsistence farmers in rural areas, who received minimal education, employ a basic method of slash-and-burn to support their agricultural activities. This rudimentary agricultural technique involves the felling of forest trees before a dry season and, subsequently, the burning of these trees in the following dry season to provide fertilisers to support their crop activities. This agricultural practice is repetitively employed on the same plot of land until it is denuded of its nutrients and could no longer suffice to support agricultural yields. Thereafter, these farmers will move on to occupy another plot of land and continually practice their slash-and-burn technique.Tony Waters, The Persistence of Subsistence Agriculture, p. 3. Lexington Books (2007) This contributing social factor to deforestation reinforces the challenges faced by forestry sustainability in developing countries such as Indonesia.