Forest, people sacrificed in Sebangau
How a national park in Central Kalimantan vanishes in plain sight
By Gembong Hanung June 30, 2026After years of destruction, Sebangau forest was named a national park with the goal of protecting it from further deforestation. More than 20 years later, forest degradation is still happening inside the park’s borders from agriculture and mining, raising questions about authorities’ efforts to preserve nature.
For many Dayak people, the indigenous dwellers of Kalimantan forests, an old adage remains their way of life: “Ingat peteh Tatu Hiang, petak danum akan kolunen harian andau” (Remember the advice of our ancestors; the land and water are for generations to come).
But as their home in the Indonesian part of Borneo Island has become one of the world’s flashpoints of deforestation, their belief in guarding their homeland and passing it down to their children has faded, along with the forests.
Sebangau, a vast peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan, has become a critical case in which rapid deforestation and forest fires have continued to occur even after it was granted national park status in 2004, the country’s highest level of conservation that legally protects an ecosystem along with its biodiversity.
For many Dayak people, the indigenous dwellers of Kalimantan forests, an old adage remains their way of life: “Ingat peteh Tatu Hiang, petak danum akan kolunen harian andau” (Remember the advice of our ancestors; the land and water are for generations to come).
But as their home in the Indonesian part of Borneo Island has become one of the world’s flashpoints of deforestation, their belief in guarding their homeland and passing it down to their children has faded, along with the forests.
Sebangau, a vast peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan, has become a critical case in which rapid deforestation and forest fires have continued to occur even after it was granted national park status in 2004, the country’s highest level of conservation that legally protects an ecosystem along with its biodiversity.
More than two decades later, the national park, which is eight times the size of Jakarta, has lost thousands of hectares of its forest cover to encroachment and tenurial conflicts, a pattern that has been widely reported across 57 national parks in the archipelago.
In April, The Jakarta Post went into the depths of Sebangau, witnessing the presence of illegal oil palm plantations that have become part of the supply chain of global brands like Cargill and Nestlé, while the Ngaju people, one of the largest subgroups of Dayak, have been uprooted from their ancestral homes.
Endless destruction
Sebangau sits on the doorstep of Central Kalimantan’s provincial capital of Palangka Raya, which also shares the park area with neighboring Katingan and Pulang Pisau regencies. Three ancient rivers of Sebangau, Kahayan and Katingan crisscross the park, nourishing a vast network of peat swamp forests.
It intertwines with 39 villages and subdistricts, two thirds of which have Dayak-majority populations. Some are also situated along the 650-kilometer-long Katingan River on the western side of Sebangau.
With 80 percent of the area consisting of peat forests, Sebangau is also one of the country’s largest peatland ecosystems and is home to more than 8,700 Bornean orangutans that live on the verge of extinction.
The destruction of Sebangau forests can be traced back to a period between the 1970s and early 2000s, when the area was designated as an industrial forest plantation (HTI) that hosted dozens of timber concessions. At that time, peatlands were heavily drained to make way for more than 400 canals built to transport timber logs, while major watercourses were also diverted to irrigate monocrops.
The damage was so enormous that official data estimated that up to 85 percent of Sebangau had been left barren and that it would take several centuries to restore it to its pre-logged state. The massive destruction prompted the government to grant the national park status in 2004.
