The year 2025 did not start from scratch. Instead, it arrived with a burden that had been building since the end of 2024. In the final weeks of that year, the government announced plans to open up to 20 million hectares of forest land for food and energy projects. A decision that immediately sparked a wave
of anxiety, not only because of its massive scale, but because it revived old patterns. Expansion that often leaves behind conflict, ecosystem degradation, and long-lasting social wounds.
The plan became an unwanted “New Year’s gift. ” As the calendar turned, the public had not yet had time to process the shock of the end of the year. The year 2025 began with many questions. What will happen to the forests that have been the mainstay of Indonesia’s climate commitments? What will happen
to indigenous communities and villages whose livelihoods continue to be eroded by large-scale economic projects? And how does the state intend to balance its food and energy ambitions with increasingly fragile ecological limits?
Not long after that, nature spoke, and its voice could no longer be ignored. From the beginning of the year, floods appeared in various large and small cities. By the end of the year, BNPB data showed that Indonesia had experienced more than 3,000 disaster events. Floods were the most frequent disasters, followed by extreme weather, landslides, and more than 500 incidents of forest and land fires. This series of disasters was not a coincidence, but a reflection of spatial planning that was no longer able to withstand the pace of development that ignored the carrying capacity and resilience of the environment.
