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View all search resultsLarge-scale food estate threatens Indonesia’s climate pledge
The government’s ongoing food estate project has drawn criticism for environmental damage that could undermine Indonesia’s climate commitments, as the initiative requires large-scale land and forest clearance despite past failures in achieving food self-sufficiency
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A deforested area that will be converted into a sugarcane plantation by PT Murni Nusantara Abadi, directly threatening the adjacent customary forest protected by the Kwipalo Clan, is seen on March 17 in Mandiri Jagebob, Merauke regency, South Papua. In an effort to end its reliance on rice imports, Indonesia wants to plant vast tracts of the crop, along with sugar cane for biofuel, in Papua, but environmentalists warn it could become the world's largest deforestation project, threatening endangered species and Jakarta's climate commitments. (AFP/Handout/Mighty Earth/Yusuf Wahil)
T
he government’s ongoing food estate project has drawn criticism for environmental damage that could undermine Indonesia’s climate commitments, as the initiative requires large-scale land and forest clearance despite past failures in achieving food self-sufficiency.
Food watchdog FIAN Indonesia highlighted that the failed food estate in Central Kalimantan, where uncontrolled land conversion and extensive monoculture plantations did not translate into food security, has harmed local livelihoods and the surrounding ecosystem.
“Food estates will not resolve Indonesia’s food crisis and are not the right solution,” FIAN Indonesia national coordinator Marthin Hadiwinata said during a public discussion in Jakarta last week. “Land exploitation under these projects has worsened the climate crisis.”
Launched under former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in 2020, the food estate is a national strategic project intended to reduce the country’s dependence on rice imports.
However, despite ongoing criticism, including reports of abandoned land and inadequate infrastructure, the project continues under President Prabowo Subianto’s administration.
Read also: Prabowo optimistic about food estate program, self-sufficiency
The 2025–2029 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) allocates 4 million hectares of land for rice cultivation, an area almost the size of the Netherlands, targeting an additional 10 million tonnes of domestic rice production.
