Indonesia Lost 270,000 Hectares of Primary Forest in 2020

A tweet by the Indonesian Minister of Environment and Forestry on her Twitter account, @SitiNurbayaLHK, went viral and sparked controversy. "Large-scale development during President Jokowi's era must not be stopped in the name of carbon emissions or deforestation," she wrote in a tweet uploaded on Wednesday (3/11/2021).

This statement sparked controversy because Indonesia is one of the countries that has experienced the greatest deforestation. As a result, Indonesia is one of the countries that has lost the most primary forest in the world and plays a significant role in global climate change.

According to data from Global Forest Watch (GFW), Indonesia had 93.8 million hectares of primary forest in 2001. This is more than half of its land area. However, between 2002 and 2020, Indonesia lost approximately 9.75 million hectares of primary forest. This resulted in a 36% loss of tree cover during the same period.

Deliberate and accidental fires are among the causes of deforestation in Indonesia. The expansion of palm oil plantations, the expansion of agricultural land by communities on the fringes of forests, and mining exploration are also contributing factors to the loss of primary forest.

The greatest loss of primary forest in Indonesia occurred in 2016, reaching 928,660 hectares. In 2020, Indonesia lost 270,000 hectares of primary forest, equivalent to 208 metric tons (mt) of carbon emissions.