Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) has warned of an escalating threat of forest fires with the dry season expected to peak in coming months, while hot spots detected in the province of A

Jakarta – Indonesia's environment minister said on Monday (24/07) she wants to make permanent a moratorium on issuing new licences to use land designated as primary forest and peatland.

Arthur Neslen – Pepsico, Unilever and Nestle have been accused of complicity in the destruction of Sumatra's last tract of rainforest shared by elephants, orangutans, rhinos, and tigers together in

Jakarta – Indonesia's palm oil association said on Friday (07/07) it is worried that a French plan to reduce the use of palm oil in biofuels will prompt other European countries to follow suit, dam

Eman Riberu, Merauke – A local government's decision in Papua to pull licenses for a number plantation companies has won overwhelming backing from the Catholic Church and local people, calling the

Jakarta – Several experts have urged the government to revise the draft of the palm oil bill as they consider it too lenient to companies producing the commodity and fear it could in turn threaten

Moses Ompusunggu, Jakarta – A new study has found forest cover losses in Indonesia remained high during a six-year moratorium on forest conversion.

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has approved a two-year extension to a moratorium on issuing new licences to use land designated as primary forest and peatland, the environment and forest

Riau – The Indonesian climate agency detected 18 hot spots on Friday, indicating forests and lands were burning in regions on Sumatra Island, as happens each year, resulting in pollution and upsett

Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla has called on the European Union to stop its negative campaign against palm oil products based on environmental issues.

Moses Ompusunggu, Jakarta – Environmental group Sawit Watch is urging President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to fulfill his pledge to declare a moratorium on the issuance of new permits for oil palm planta

Jakarta – Jakarta has denounced the European Parliament's recent ruling on palm oil and deforestration that it considers to be damaging to the country's biofuel exports.

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – Singaporean Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli bin Masagos Mohamad has congratulated Indonesia on its success in reducing land and forest fire

Apriadi Gunawan, Syofiardi Bachyul Jb and Panca Nugraha, North Sumatra – Rampant illegal logging and the conversion of protected forests around the upstream area of the Batang Ayumi River are being

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – The incident of a large python eating a man in a West Sulawesi village has triggered new concern over "uncontrolled" deforestation across the country, which many believe

Hans Nicholas Jong, Sorong – Villagers in West Papua have vowed not to let their forests be encroached by logging and palm oil companies, like what happened on Sumatra and Kalimantan where massive

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Thousands of hectares of forests in Mount Leuser National Park in North Sumatra and Aceh are reported to have been illegally encroached upon and converted into widespread p

Hans Nicholas Jong, Sorong, Papua – Residents of Manggroholo village and Sira village in South Sorong, West Papua province, rejoiced on Thursday as their villages were the first in Papua to have th

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The State Administrative High Court (PTUN) ruled on Thursday in favor of the Environment and Forestry Ministry, allowing the government to not disclose forest cover ma

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Ministry wins another case in court against firm responsible for forest burning Court orders fine of US$35 million for Waringin Agro Jaya

Elodie Aba and Bobbie Sta. Maria – It started with a mild cough.

Ratri M. Siniwi, Jakarta – Being home to the third largest rainforest in the world, Indonesia has always been watched closely by environmental groups concerned over deforestation.

Ratri M. Siniwi, Jakarta – HSBC, one of the biggest banks in the world, has been accused of funding deforestation in Indonesia by environmental group Greenpeace International.

Rizal Harahap, Riau – Forest and land fires have begun to threaten Riau again this week following the increasing number of hot spots detected across the province.

Anton Hermansyah, Jakarta – The government is still trying to extinguish 11 forest fires ravaging parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, a minister says.

Jakarta – The Ministry of Public Works and Housing has warned at least 22 regional agriculture watersheds have dropped to critical level, prompting concerns it has caused flooding.

Jeremy Hance – The construction of a 3km canal in Indonesia has led Greenpeace and WWF to suspend its partnership with one of Indonesia's biggest pulp and paper companies.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Environmentalists have hailed the government's decision to issue a total ban on the clearing of carbon-rich peatland across Indonesia through the revision of a governm

The owner of some of Australia's most famous food brands has been linked to deforestation in Indonesia after new footage of land clearing in North Sumatra was obtained by 7.30.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesia has strengthened its moratorium on converting peat swamps to plantations in a move a conservation research group says will help prevent annual fires and substantially

Jewel Topsfield and Karuni Rompies, Jakarta – Activists warn the last place on Earth where elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses and orangutans coexist in the wild could be destroyed by mining and palm o

Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – A Riau court rejected on Tuesday a lawsuit challenging the dropping of charges against a plantation company that had been suspected of causing one of the biggest forest f

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – A landmark Supreme Court ruling ordering a plantation company to pay a high fine for illegal forest clearing is expected to serve as a deterrent for companies that see

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – Environmental activists have lambasted the government for refusing to abide by a Central Information Commission's (KIP) ruling that ordered them to publish a forest

Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – Citing legal technicalities, the Pekanbaru District Court turned down a lawsuit filed by a local resident demanding a pretrial hearing against a controversial warrant (SP

Jakarta – The National Police have cited several reasons behind their controversial decision to terminate investigations into 15 companies previously charged for their alleged roles in the setting

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – With Indonesia facing land and forest fires every year that are mostly man-made disasters that have degraded the health of its citizens as well as that of its neighbor

Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru, Riau – Dozens of hectares of peatland in the Rangsang Timur district of Meranti Islands regency, Riau, are on fire despite the recent onset of the rainy season.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Law enforcers have become stumbling blocks in the effort to stop forest fires as they are impeding attempts to bring allegedly responsible companies to court.

Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean authorities have dismissed research that suggested smoky haze from catastrophic forest fires in Indonesia last year caused 100,000 deaths.

A smog outbreak in Southeast Asia last year may have caused over 100,000 premature deaths, according to a new study released Monday that triggered calls for action to tackle the "killer haze".

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – In June, when flooding and landslides devastated cities in Central Java, including Banjarnegara, renowned University of Indonesia sociologist and lecturer Imam B.

Jakarta – Indonesia's highest Islamic council has issued a fatwa on burning land and forests, a government official said on Wednesday (14/09), in an effort to halt the toxic smog that blankets the

Oliver Holmes, Bangkok and agencies – Up to 100 Indonesian men, believed to have been hired by a palm oil firm, took a team of official environmental investigators hostage on Friday and threatened

Jakarta – The Environment and Forestry Ministry has lashed out against a palm oil firm's attempt to stop a forest fire investigation by taking hostage seven ministry officials in Rokan Hulu, Riau.

Jakarta – An environmental group has blamed the conversion of forests into oil palm plantations for the loss of biodiversity in Papua, adding that it had also failed to improve the welfare of local

Ratri M.

Arthur Neslen – A Korean palm oil company has been dropped by buyers after footage emerged that allegedly shows the illegal burning of vast tracts of tropical forest on lands it holds concessions f

A priest in Indonesia's Papua regoin has appealed to President Joko Widodo to halt the destruction of pristine forests by a palm oil developer.

Jakarta – Sumatra's watersheds – ridges of land that separate waters flowing to different rivers and keep those waters pristine – have lost the largest amount of forest cover in the world over the