Irsyan Hasyim, Jakarta – The Forestry Ministry of Indonesia reported that Indonesia's forest area in 2024 reached 95.5 million hectares, accounting for 51.1 percent of the country's total land area.
Agus Budi Santosa, Director of Forest Inventory and Monitoring, stated that this figure was derived from annual monitoring of forest conditions and deforestation rates.
"Of this total, approximately 91.9 percent (87.8 million hectares) fall within designated forest areas," Agus said at a press conference on Monday, March 24, 2025.
The annual monitoring covers Indonesia's entire land area of 187 million hectares, both inside and outside forest zones. Mapping is conducted using Landsat satellite imagery provided by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).
Agus reported that net deforestation in 2024 was recorded at 175.4 thousand hectares, calculated from gross deforestation of 216.2 thousand hectares minus 40.8 thousand hectares of reforestation.
The majority of gross deforestation occurred in secondary forests, covering 200.6 thousand hectares (92.8 percent). About 69.3 percent of the deforestation took place within forest areas, with the rest outside.
"Forest and land fires contributed 10 percent of total deforestation in 2024," Agus noted, adding that East Kalimantan was the largest contributor to deforestation.
As a mitigation measure, Agus claimed that his agency had been promoting reforestation through the rehabilitation of forests and land covering 217.9 thousand hectares in 2024. Rehabilitation includes 71.3 thousand hectares within forests and 146.5 thousand hectares outside the forest area. These efforts have been funded by both state and non-state budgets.
Over the past decade, he continued, the average annual forest rehabilitation area has been 230 thousand hectares.
"These efforts will be recorded as an increase in forest and mixed agricultural land cover or agroforestry. Some of it becomes secondary forest cover," he said.
Comparing data from previous years, Agus noted that the deforestation trend is increasing, but still lower than the average deforestation over the past decade. He mentioned that these calculations indicate that the policies and efforts of the Forestry Ministry are beginning to show effective results.
Some steps taken to reduce deforestation, according to Agus, range from the Implementation of the President's Instruction on the Cessation of New Permits and Improving the Management of Primary Natural Forests and Peatlands; Control of Peatland Damage and Climate Change; Limitation of forest allocation changes for non-forestry sectors; Sustainable Forest Management and Social Forestry; Forest and Land Rehabilitation; and Law Enforcement in Forestry.