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View all search resultsTo prevent similar disasters in the future, regular audits of plantation, mining, and logging permits, especially in upstream watersheds, are needed to ensure that land-use decisions support ecological protection.
Coordinating Food Minister Zulkifli Hasan has suddenly become the target of public ire after a decade-old video of his interview with actor Harrison Ford resurfaced online, which for some netizens, made him a convenient scapegoat for the deadly floods in northern Sumatra.
About 1.4 million hectares of forest cover have been cleared across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra between 2016 and 2025 to make way for plantations and mining, according to the environmental group Walhi. The areas hardest-hit by floods and landslides last week were degraded watersheds.
Separate weather systems brought torrential, extended rainfall to the entire island of Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia's Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week. Climate change is producing more extreme rain events and turbocharging storms in the region.
The European Commission proposed a further softening of the EU anti-deforestation law on Tuesday, relieving the reporting burden for many smallholders and businesses in select countries but stepping back from delaying the world-first green policy by another year.