Stefani Ribka, Jakarta – In less than a year, the country has taken a step back in plastic waste management, as retailers have stopped charging for plastic shopping bags.

Panca Nugraha and Ruslan Sangaji, Jakarta/Mataram/Palu – Floods have been hitting a number of regions across the country, displacing people, destroying agricultural fields and inundating hundreds o

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Padang – A legislator from West Sumatra apparently cannot understand why local authorities are opposing his business interests in the province, which he has represented at the

Jakarta – The death toll from the flash floods that hit Garut district in West Java rose to 27, while 22 people are still missing two days after the incident, a spokesman for the National Disaster

Ina Parlina, Agus Maryono and Rizal Harahap, Jakarta/Cilacap/Pekanbaru – Heavy rains, arguably caused by the La Nina weather phenomenon that increases precipitation, have wreaked havoc in two regen

Agus Maryono and Rizal Harahap, Cilacap/Pekanbaru – Two people have died in floods in Cilacap regency, Central Java, over the past three days.

Severianus Endi and Novi Abdi, Pontianak/Balikpapan – The number of hot spots across West Kalimantan province has been growing since early this week with some 400 of them detected on Tuesday, incre

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The government has given the country's leading pulp and paper company PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) a slap on the wrist even though it has violated President J

Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru, Riau – Wildlife trade will not come to an end until Indonesia's legal system imposes heavy sentences with a deterrent effect on people who illegally hunt or trade animals,

Arif Gunawan Sulistiyono, Jakarta – Leuser ecosystem, a UNESCO world heritage site that covers thousands of hectares of protected forest in Aceh and North Sumatra, must be included in the Aceh spat

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Indonesia's target of cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 29 percent by 2030 appears ever-more unrealistic as the government continues to push the use of coal fo

Hans Nicholas Jong and Rizal Harahap, Jakarta/Pekanbaru – Following an incident in Riau where officials from the Environment and Forestry Ministry were taken hostage and threatened with death while

Arya Dipa, Bandung – The government has been fighting a losing battle against polluters of the Citarum River in West Java, which is considered one of the world's most polluted rivers.

Djemi Amnifu, Kupang – Indonesian fishermen from East Nusa Tenggara kicked off their legal battle on Monday at an Australian court, demanding justice for an oil spill in the Montara oil field that

Pontianak – The number of hot spots in West Kalimantan increased to 636 on Friday, raising concerns that thick haze could disrupt flights at Supadio Airport in Pontianak.

Bambang Nurbianto, Kuching, Sarawak – As the number of hot spots in forest areas is increasing, relevant parties – government, companies and smallholders – have to stop playing the blame game and f

Djemi Amnifu, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara – Care for West Timor Foundation (YPTB) chairman Ferdi Tanoni expressed his thanks for the Australian Greens' support of the class action lawsuit filed by I

Tens of thousands of endangered birds are being sold illegally at markets across Indonesia, threatening these species with extinction.

Djemi Amnifu, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara – The Federal Court of Australia in Sydney on Wednesday accepted a class action lawsuit filed by Indonesian fishermen, who are demanding PTTEP Australasia p

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – More than 13,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers will on Wednesday launch a class action in the Federal Court in Sydney against the company responsible for the worst oil spill

Feriawan Hidayat & Ratri M.

Bogor – Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar highlighted on Sunday the urgency of treating plastic waste, which is one of the country's major environmental problems.

Hans Nicholas Jong and Bambang Muryanto, Jakarta/Purworejo – Unruly permit issuance and rapid extractive industry expansion have led to a string of disasters in several parts of Indonesia, particul

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – In the wake of extreme weather that has devastated parts of Indonesia and claimed dozens of lives, the government is being urged to overhaul the country's disaster man

Jakarta – Cement plants must be moved outside Java to prevent worsening ecological damage to the most densely populated island, an environmental expert said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – At least 35 people have been killed by landslides and floods on Indonesia's Java island and many others are missing.

Djemi Amnifu, Kupang – Oil spilled into the Timor Sea for approximately 74 days in 2009, resulting in a change of fish migration patterns in the area, which is now costing the local fishing industr

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Last week, Environment and Forestry Ministry spokesman Novrizal Tahar headed to a minimarket near his house in Kampung Utan, Ciputat, South Tangerang, to buy four larg

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Indonesia still has a long way to go to achieve its carbon emission reduction target as efforts to combat climate change are being hampered at the regional level, a Wo

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – From Acehnese fighting to protect the Leuser National Park to Papuans resisting the expansion of palm oil companies, thousands of people across the archipelago are wag

Thirteen species of Indonesian birds, including the country's symbolic Javan hawk-eagle, are at serious risk of extinction mainly due to the pet trade, a wildlife watchdog warned Wednesday.

Lita Aruperes, Manado – Reclamation projects that had been started in Manado in the 1990s had not only had made hundreds of fishermen lose their jobs, but also destroyed mangroves along the city's

Ni Komang Erviani – The Sabha Pandita (high priests) of the Indonesian Hindu Religious Council (PHDI) have called on the government to review its decision over the controversial Benoa Bay reclamati

Lita Aruperes and Ni Komang Erviani – Reclamation off Manado beach, North Sulawesi, has forced fishermen in Daseng Panglima, Sario district, to switch occupations as they find it increasingly diffi

Hundreds of residents of Pakraman village, Denpasar staged a rally on Thursday to oppose a planned reclamation project in Benoa Bay, Bali which they believe would destroy the environment and their

Elly Burhaini Faizal – The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has revealed that almost all reclamation projects in Indonesia, including projects in Jakarta, Bali and Makassar, have violat

Marguerite Afra Sapiie – People grouped under Gerakan Rakyat Menggugat (GeRAM) are raising awareness for the need to protect the Leuser Ecosystem Zone (KEL) in Aceh through an online petition.

Kanupriya Kapoor & Gayatri Suroyo, Padang/Jakarta – All 22 of the early-warning buoys Indonesia deployed after the 2004 tsunami disaster were inoperable when a massive undersea earthquake struc

Ni Komang Erviani, Andi Hajramurni and Arya Dipa, Denpasar/Makassar/Bandung – The government's new policy requiring modern retailers to charge customers for plastic bags will begin slowly as local

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Most of the cities planning to join a campaign to tax plastic bags have withdrawn from the program, saying that they were not ready to implement it.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Customers will have to pay for plastic bags when they shop at shopping malls, department stores, supermarkets and other retail outlets throughout 23 of the country's m

Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – The floods affecting a number of regions in Riau, Aceh and Bali have not only engulfed residential areas but also thousands of hectares of farmland, currently causing wid

Michael Neilson, Jakarta – Activists are suing the Indonesian government in a bid to stop development they say will devastate the last remaining area on earth where Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, o

Jon Afrizal, Syamsul Huda M.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – A group of Aceh citizens will lodge a civil lawsuit against the Home Ministry at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday in a bid to preserve the Leuser Ecosyst

Denpasar – Dressed in Balinese attire, more than 1,000 people flocked onto the streets of bustling Kuta on Sunday morning, voicing their opposition to a reclamation project in Benoa Bay, Bali.

Oil and gas exploration company Lapindo Brantas has suspended operations in East Java's Sidoarjo regency, where people are still traumatized by the mudflow disaster blamed on the company's previous

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – Residents of Tanggulangin, Sidoarjo, East Java, have protested without avail against planned gas drilling by Lapindo Brantas Inc., a company affiliated with the family

Manado – The hot mudflow from a drilling site of Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) Lahendong, a subsidiary of state-owned gas and oil company Pertamina, in Tondangow subdistrict, Tomohon, North Sul

Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo, East Java – Oil and gas company PT Lapindo Brantas, controlled by the family of businessman and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, plans to redrill a gas well near t