Deforestation in Indonesia means the long-term loss of forests and plants across much of the country. It has caused major environmental and social changes. Indonesia is home to some of the world’s most biologically diverse forests and has the third-largest number of species after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As late as 1900, Indonesia had forests covering 84% of its land. Deforestation became more severe in the 1970s and has continued to increase since then. The estimated forest area of 170 million hectares in 1900 dropped to less than 100 million hectares by the end of the 20th century. In 2008, scientists predicted that tropical rainforests in Indonesia could be completely logged out within a decade. Up to 80% of logging in Indonesia is reported to be illegal.
Large areas of forest have been cleared by international companies, such as Asia Pulp and Paper, to create plantations. Farmers and plantation owners often burn forests to clear land. Another major cause of deforestation is the logging industry, which meets demand from countries like China and Japan. Agricultural projects and government programs that moved people into rainforest areas have also increased deforestation. Experts describe the widespread destruction of forests and other natural areas in Indonesia as an ecocide.
Logging and burning forests to grow crops have made Indonesia one of the world’s largest sources of greenhouse gases, second only to China and the United States. Forest fires destroy important carbon sinks, such as old-growth rainforests and peat swamp forests. In 2011, Indonesia banned new logging contracts to help reduce deforestation. This policy had limited success, and by 2012, Indonesia’s deforestation rate had surpassed Brazil’s, making it the fastest forest-clearing country in the world.
In recent years, deforestation rates have decreased. 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 trend of increasing loss between 2021 and 2023. Fires remained mild, and total forest loss stayed below levels seen in the mid-2010s. During the final year of President Joko Widodo’s term, the government focused on protecting and restoring forests, preventing fires, and reducing deforestation linked to products like palm oil and timber. Most forest loss occurred near existing plantations, small farms, and mining areas. Increases were noted in provinces such as Aceh, Bengkulu, and South Sumatra on the island of Sumatra, as well as in Papua. Losses also happened in protected areas like Kerinci Seblat, Tesso Nilo, and the Leuser ecosystem.
In 2025, forest loss in Indonesia increased by 66%, reaching the highest rate in eight years.
History
The Indonesian archipelago, which includes about 17,000 islands, contains some of the most diverse forests in the world. In 1900, forests covered 84% of the total land area. By 1950, plantations and small farms with trees still covered only a small part of the land. At that time, forests were estimated to cover 145 million hectares of primary forest and 14 million hectares of secondary and tidal forest.
In the early 1970s, Indonesia began using its forests to support economic growth by developing industries that process wood. From the late 1980s to 2000, production in the pulp and paper industries increased nearly 700%, making Indonesia the ninth-largest pulp producer and eleventh-largest paper producer in the world.
Deforestation continued to grow. A 2009 report by the Indonesian government showed that the number of fire hotspots increased to 32,416 in 2009, up from 19,192 in 2008. The Environment Ministry said the rise was due to weak enforcement of laws and poor oversight by local officials, with land clearing as the main cause of the fires.
Between 1990 and 2000, 20% of Indonesia’s forests were lost (24 million hectares). By 2010, only 52% of the total land area was forested (94 million hectares). Even after a 2010 ban on new logging contracts, deforestation increased to about 840,000 hectares in 2012, exceeding deforestation rates in Brazil. Deforestation peaked in 2016 but then declined by about 30% from 2009–2016 to 2017–2019. Studies linked the decline to policies such as bans on clearing primary forests and draining peatlands, reviewing land concessions, and halting new palm oil plantations and mines. Sustainability programs for existing palm oil plantations also contributed. Community forest titles were issued for 2.4 million hectares, but a 2021 study found no evidence these programs reduced deforestation.
Drivers of deforestation
Between 2001 and 2022, the main cause of deforestation in Indonesia was palm oil plantations, which made up about 70% of all deforestation in the country. Clearing land for small farms and small mixed plantations together made up about 22% of deforestation. Logging roads and small clearings, along with regrowth of secondary forests, made up about 10% of deforestation. Other causes, such as mining and fish ponds, combined made up about 5% of deforestation.
At least 3.3 million hectares of forest in Indonesia were converted into palm oil plantations. However, the loss of primary forest each year decreased from 930,000 hectares in 2016 to 230,000 hectares in 2022. New government rules state that landowners who grow oil palm plantations on production forest land will be fined. Those who grow them on protected forest land must return the land to the government to be turned back into forests. 200,000 hectares of plantations will be changed back into forests. Legal action will be taken against companies that grow plantations illegally.
In 2024, nickel mining and processing was one of the main causes of deforestation in Indonesia.
Effects
Quick and growing deforestation in Indonesia damages the country's wide variety of plants and animals and increases greenhouse gas emissions, which are among the highest in the world. Changing peat soil into other uses and burning it causes serious air pollution, which leads to major health problems for people.
Affected regions
Indonesia's lowland tropical forests, which have the most timber and wildlife, are at the greatest risk of destruction. By the year 2000, nearly all of these forests had been cleared in Sulawesi, and they are expected to vanish in the next few years in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
In Sumatra, many thousands of square kilometers of forest have been destroyed. This often happened because the central government allowed palm oil companies to remove the forest. In Kalimantan, between 1991 and 2014, large areas of forest were burned by fires that were hard to control. These fires caused pollution that spread across Southeast Asia.
The construction of the Trans-Papua Highway is expected to make large areas of rainforest in Western New Guinea accessible to logging activities.
Illegal land clearing
A 2007 United Nations Environment Program report estimated that between 73% and 88% of timber logged in Indonesia was from illegal logging. Later estimates showed that between 40% and 55% of logging in Indonesia was illegal. A 2021 study found that 81% of forest clearing for palm oil in Indonesia was illegal. Indonesia's Supreme Audit Agency also reported that less than 20% of the country’s palm oil operations followed national laws and rules.
Malaysia is the main country through which illegal wood products from Indonesia are transported.
Private companies, driven by the desire to make money from selling timber in local and regional markets, are responsible for deforestation. These companies often ignore basic legal rules by using cost-effective but harmful methods, such as starting forest fires, to clear land for farming. The 1999 Forestry Law requires companies to get an IPK permit, a type of timber harvesting permit, from local authorities to legally approve their logging activities. Many companies avoid these rules, take advantage of weak law enforcement, and use illegal logging to increase profits.
In rural areas, small-scale farmers with little education use a simple farming method called slash-and-burn. This involves cutting down trees before the dry season and burning them during the dry season to create fertilizer for crops. Farmers repeat this process on the same land until the soil loses its nutrients and can no longer support crops. When this happens, they move to a new area and use the same method again. This practice adds to the problem of deforestation and makes it harder to protect forests in countries like Indonesia.
On the political side, the Indonesian government has faced criticism for not stopping deforestation effectively. Corruption among local officials has made people distrustful of government efforts to control illegal logging. In 2008, a timber company owner, Adelin Lis, was found not guilty of illegal logging, which increased public anger and criticism of the Indonesian government.
The Indonesian government struggles to manage deforestation while also developing cities in a way that is sustainable. As people move from rural to urban areas, cities need to grow, which often requires cutting down forests. The lack of clear responsibility for protecting forests in government-led migration projects shows that forest conservation is not a priority in these efforts. This lack of action increases doubts about the government’s ability to manage urban growth and protect forests responsibly.
Tree cover extent and loss
Global Forest Watch uses satellite images from the Landsat program to create yearly reports about tree cover loss and the total tree cover area in the year 2000. These reports are part of the Global Forest Change dataset. In this system, tree cover means areas with trees taller than 5 meters, such as natural forests and planted trees. Tree cover loss is the complete removal of tree cover in a specific year, no matter the reason.
For Indonesia, the reports show that between 2001 and 2024, the country lost about 32 million hectares (320,000 square kilometers) of tree cover, which is about 20% of the tree cover area that existed in 2000. For areas with tree cover density above 30%, the total tree cover area in 2000 was 160,640,822 hectares (1,606,408.22 square kilometers). The charts and table below show these numbers. The annual loss number represents the area where tree cover disappeared in that year. The extent number shows the remaining tree cover from the 2000 baseline after subtracting all the loss over time. The dataset does not include areas where forests regrew.
Conservation efforts
Efforts to reduce global climate change include actions to track deforestation in Indonesia and encourage national and local governments to stop it. These programs are called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). New systems to monitor deforestation are now being used in Indonesia. One example is the Center for Global Development's Forest Monitoring for Action platform, which shows updated monthly data on deforestation across Indonesia.
On 26 May 2010, Indonesia signed an agreement with Norway to pause new logging permits for two years. This deal included up to $1 billion for Indonesia if it met its goals. The agreement aimed to limit the impact of Indonesia's palm oil industry and delay plans for a large agricultural area in Papua province. Funds will first support Indonesia's climate and forest strategy, help build systems to track and verify reduced emissions, and create policies to support these efforts. Norway will also assist Indonesia in setting up systems to reduce corruption and ensure the agreement is followed. The two-year logging pause began on 20 May 2011 and was extended for another two years in 2013.
In 2014, Indonesia joined about 40 countries in supporting the New York Declaration on Forests. This agreement aimed to halve deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030. However, the agreement was not legally required, and some major countries, including Brazil, China, and Russia, did not sign it. As a result, deforestation increased from 2014 to 2020 globally and in Indonesia. In November 2021, Indonesia joined 141 countries at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to support the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use. This pledge aimed to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 and included about $19.2 billion in funding. Like the earlier agreement, the Glasgow Declaration was not legally required. Soon after Indonesia joined, its government withdrew from the commitment, with the environment minister stating that requiring Indonesia to end all deforestation by 2030 was "inappropriate and unfair."
Indonesia has submitted national forest reference emission levels (FRELs) and forest reference levels (FRLs) under the UNFCCC REDD+ framework. These benchmarks help determine payments based on results and are reviewed by the UNFCCC.
Indonesia's first national FREL, submitted in January 2016, measured carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in natural forests that existed in 1990 (about 113.2 million hectares). It used a reference period from 1990 to 2012 and included emissions from tree cover and soil on peatlands, but not other sources or gases. The FREL reported 568,859,881 metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2013, rising to 593,329,235 metric tons in 2020 due to emissions from peat decomposition.
In 2022, Indonesia submitted an updated national FRL covering the 2006–2020 reference period. This version included carbon removals from improved forest carbon storage and reported average annual net emissions or removals. The technical review found the FRL to be 192,921,295 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year (revised from 267,705,902 metric tons per year in the original submission). The review noted that differences between the 2016 and 2022 benchmarks mainly reflect changes in scope, methods, and data, so the totals are not directly comparable to show deforestation trends.