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View all search resultsPalm oil expansion in Papua raises eyebrow
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President Prabowo Subianto (left) and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka (second left) listens to their ministers' explanation during a cabinet meeting at the State Palace in Jakarta on Dec. 15, 2025. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
P
resident Prabowo Subianto’s aspiration to expand palm oil plantations in Papua for biofuel production has drawn strong backlash from environmentalists, who warn the policy risks repeating the ecological disasters already unfolding in Sumatra.
Prabowo made the remarks during a meeting with Papuan regional leaders in Jakarta on Tuesday, stressing that the country’s easternmost region must achieve self-sufficiency in strategic sectors, including food and energy.
“We hope Papua can be planted with oil palm so it can produce fuel from palm oil,” he said, adding that sugarcane and cassava could also be developed as part of efforts to achieve energy self-sufficiency within the next five years.
The President claimed that producing alternative energy, including from palm oil, cassava, sugarcane, solar and hydropower could save the state hundreds of trillions of rupiah currently spent on fuel subsidies and imports.
Annual fuel imports, which have reached Rp 520 trillion (US$31.77 billion), could be reduced by half or even eliminated, with the savings reallocated to regional governments, he added. “The potential exists, the plans are in place and we will prove it.”
The remarks came amid heightened scrutiny of extractive industries, including palm oil, over their alleged role in worsening floods and landslides in Aceh, North and West Sumatra last month, which have claimed over 1,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands.
Read also: How deforestation turbocharged Sumatra's deadly floods
