Indonesia's 2024 Customary Forest Area Data: Largest in Central Kalimantan

According to data from the Directorate of Tenurial Conflict and Customary Forest Handling at the Ministry of Forestry, Indonesia has 260,021.37 hectares (ha) of land designated as customary forest, spread across 18 provinces.

This customary forest area was digitally calculated using Cylindrical Equal Area projection (ESRI:54034), based on the September 2023 Update 2 of the Administrative Government Boundary Map.

The largest areas of customary forest are located in Central Kalimantan, followed by West Kalimantan, and Papua.

The following details the area of designated customary forest in 18 Indonesian provinces as of December 2024:

1. Central Kalimantan: 68,356.61 ha

2. West Kalimantan: 50,741.36 ha

3. Papua: 23,627.34 ha

4. North Sumatra: 23,170.23 ha

5. Aceh: 22,500.09 ha

6. Central Sulawesi: 17,451.20 ha

7. West Papua: 16,297.52 ha

8. Banten: 8,346.59 ha

9. Jambi: 7,980.37 ha

10. East Kalimantan: 7,774.76 ha

11. West Sumatra: 6,946.85 ha

12. South Sulawesi: 4,630.45 ha

13. Bali: 971.80 ha

14. Riau: 408.57 ha

15. South Sumatra: 380.71 ha

16. Maluku: 341.68 ha

17. Central Java: 64.22 ha

18. West Java: 31.22 ha

The recognition of customary forests is now one of the strategic initiatives of the Minister of Forestry, Raja Juli Antoni. He stated that he has formed an inclusive Task Force for the Acceleration of Customary Forest Recognition, involving the community.

"The focus is on accelerating the process of recognizing customary forests in Indonesia, given the important role of forests for the identity, culture, and lives of indigenous communities," he said in a press release (May 14, 2025).