Indonesian Forestry Minister Plans To Level 50 Million Acres For Food, BIofuels; Area 2X The Size Of South Korea
JAKARTA — An Indonesian government plan to clear forests spanning an area twice the size of South Korea for food and biofuel crops has sparked fears of massive greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. The country’s forestry minister, Raja Juli Antoni, announced on Dec. 30, 2024, that his office had identified forest areas spanning 20 million hectares (50 million acres) for potential conversion into “food and energy estates.”
The announcement triggered an immediate backlash, as similar food estate programs in the past have failed, often leaving a legacy of environmental destruction. Indonesia has the world’s third-largest expanse of tropical rainforest, after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and such a vast amount of deforestation would deal a major blow to global efforts of limiting global warming, said Amalya Reza Oktaviani, bioenergy campaign manager at the NGO Trend Asia.
The clearing of 20 million hectares of forests could release up to 22 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the annual emissions from nearly 5,300 coal-fired power plants. “This [food and energy estate plan] shows how the government doesn’t have a commitment to reforest and rehabilitate natural forests,” Amalya said. “In reality, we don’t have the luxury of deforesting amid the climate crisis.” Yet the plan aligns with the platform of President Prabowo Subianto, who has prioritized achieving both food and energy self-sufficiency as cornerstones of his administration. Since his election campaign in late 2023 and early 2024, Prabowo has emphasized the need for Indonesia to achieve sovereignty in these critical sectors to bolster economic resilience and national security.
EDIT
A cleared area for the establishment of cassava plantation as a part of the food estate program in the Tewai Baru village, Gunung Mas district, Central Kalimantan. Image courtesy of Walhi Central Kalimantan.
EDIT
A key uncertainty remains about the Ministry of Forestry’s plan: where are the 20 million hectares of forest it’s targeting for the food and biofuel crops? The ministry has indicated it will prioritize abandoned or idle forestry concessions, known by the Indonesian acronym PBPH. These include selective logging concessions that the ministry says no longer contain primary forest. Ade Tri Ajikusumah, head of the ministry’s planning department, said approximately 20 million hectares of Indonesia’s 37 million hectares (91 million acres) of forestry concessions are inactive. “That’s what we use for agroforestry, so there’s no land clearing,” he told Mongabay.
EDIT
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/indonesian-forestry-minister-proposes-20m-hectares-of-deforestation-for-crops/
= new reply since forum marked as read
