Rising forest loss puts Kalimantan at higher risk of disasters

Deforestation driven by the expansion of pulpwood plantations is increasingly threatening Kalimantan, a new report has found, raising fears of repeating the devastating floods and landslides that recently hit northern Sumatra and claimed hundreds of lives.

- 

The report, issued on Dec 10 by global environmental nongovernmental organisation Trase, found that the pulp industry across Indonesia had cleared more than 13,000ha of natural forests in 2024.

While the figure shows a decline in pulp industry deforestation after increasing for three straight years, the group revealed the hot spot for forest loss in Indonesia is now shifting from historically plagued Sumatra to Indonesia’s Kalimantan area on Borneo Island, where 90 per cent of deforestation from the pulp industry was detected.

Forest loss in Sumatra has been in the spotlight recently following cyclone-induced floods and landslides that caused widespread destruction and casualties.

At least 990 people were killed across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, as at Dec 11.

Environmentalists have blamed deforestation in the three provinces for causing the disasters, as the land’s ability to contain rainwater during extreme weather events has been reduced.

“If the trend continues, it’s not impossible that in the next 10, 15 or 20 years, the ecological disasters that happened in northern Sumatra might also take place in Kalimantan,” said Mr Hilman Afif, a campaigner with local NGO Auriga Nusantara that contributed to Trase’s report, during the report’s launch event in Jakarta on Dec 10.

Indonesia is one of the world’s major pulp producers. The country produced 11.3 million tonnes of pulp in 2024, a roughly twofold increase from 2015.