Hans Nicholas Jong

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is expected to issue a new standard for its member companies to abide by when it holds its annual general meeting next week.

Environmental activists say they see no letup in fossil fuel burning and environmental degradation under Indonesia's new president, Prabowo Subianto.

JAKARTA — At the U.N. climate conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Indonesian government announced an ambitious plan to reforest 12.7 million hectares (31.4 million acres) of degraded land, an area 80 times the size of London. The government framed the policy as a critical move to combat climate change, as Indonesia is one of […]

JAKARTA — In recent United Nations biodiversity conferences, global leaders have championed Indigenous peoples as critical partners in achieving conservation goals. Indonesia, as a signatory to an international treaty on biodiversity protection, pledged to uphold these principles. Yet, its latest conservation law does the opposite—sidelining Indigenous communities and threatening to criminalize their traditional practices, despite […]

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s plan to clear rainforests half the size of Switzerland for sugarcane plantations isn’t just an agricultural gamble, experts warn — it’s a potential environmental catastrophe. A new report by Jakarta-based think tank the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) found that the government’s so-called food estate program will drive a significant […]

A plan to clear rainforests half the size of Switzerland for sugarcane plantations, which commenced recently, would nearly double the country's

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has called for the expansion of oil palm plantations, saying any criticism that this will cause deforestation is nonsense because oil palms are trees too.

JAKARTA — The Indonesian company responsible for the largest amount of deforestation, PT Mayawana Persada, has largely ceased clearing peatlands in the western part of Borneo. However, it has shifted focus to planting acacia trees on previously cleared peatlands, defying a government directive to halt activities and rehabilitate degraded land. Environmental activists warn that the […]

Indonesia's forestry minister says 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of forest can be converted to grow food and biofuel crops, or an area twice the size of South Korea.

An Indonesian forensic scientist whose testimony has proved crucial in securing rulings against environmental violators faces a third potential lawsuit.