Walhi Expects Deforestation to Worsen during Prabowo Subianto's Reign

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Forest and Garden Campaign Manager of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Uli Arta Siagian suspects that the new government will continue President Joko Widodo or Jokowi’s deforestation policies. 

Quoting the data from Auriga Nusantara, Uli said deforestation in Papua reached 89,881 hectares in 2015, and 30,000 hectares in each following year. The deforestation in Papua occurred in the form of land clearing at “natural forests with excellent forest cover”, Uli told Tempo on Wednesday, June 12, 2024.

Uli said Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming are committed to sustaining several of Jokowi’s programs that are proven to affect the environment negatively. These policies include strategic projects in the forest and mangrove ecosystem areas.   

In addition, Prabowo-Gibran's commitment to continue food estates and nickel downstream is also an indicator that the rate of deforestation will worsen in the next five years. "Deforestation upstream will be at large scale because most of our nickel mining zones are in forest areas," Uli said.

Uli also highlighted the policy to increase the level of the biodiesel program from B-30 to B-100, which has the potential to encourage large-scale land clearing for oil palm plantations.

"Because our only remaining forest is there to support the program, the rest has become residential space, areas with concession permits, and areas for infrastructure projects,” Uli added.

Considering these indicators, according to Uli, the Prabowo-Gibran regime will focus on growing the extractive industry. "Of course, this will result in massive deforestation in Papua and Indonesia as a whole," she said.

IRSYAN HASYIM

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