In Indonesia’s Rainforest, a Mega-Farm Project Is Plowing Ahead

September 4, 2025

A Note From the Editor

This week at Yale Environment 360, our contributing writer Fred Pearce reports on a mega-farm project underway in Indonesia, where the government of President Prabowo Subianto is turning 7 million acres of rainforest and wetlands into rice and sugarcane plantations. Its aim is to end Indonesia’s reliance on rice imports and to provide millions of tons of sugarcane for biofuel. Critics say the scheme is the largest deforestation project in the world and warn it will upend the lives of tens of thousands of forest dwellers. Says a researcher, “the situation has become a disaster” for Indigenous communities whose land is now being cleared. Read Pearce’s report. View all our reporting and commentary at Yale Environment 360 and add your thoughts to the discussion. Plus, keep track of new environmental developments at our e360 Digest.

Roger Cohn Editor (Sources: Yale Environment 360)