Indonesia sees lowest rates of deforestation in 30 years
In 2020, Indonesia, home to one third of the world’s tropical rainforests, achieved its lowest forest-loss rates since monitoring began, totaling a 75% drop year-over-year.
Indonesia
This archive collects solutions-journalism stories and milestones from Indonesia — covering health, environment, community development, and more. Each entry highlights real progress made by people, organizations, and communities across the archipelago.
Indonesia commits to all-electric vehicle sales by 2050
In an effort to accelerate the global transition to all-electric transportation, Indonesia has announced that it will end the sale of combustion engine motorcycles by 2040 and combustion engine cars by 2050.
West Papua revokes quarter of a million hectares of land from palm oil
The local government Indonesia’s West Papua province has revoked permits for 12 oil palm concessions that cover an area twice the size of Los Angeles.
Indonesian campaigners triumph against a coal mine in top court
Indonesia’s Supreme Court has rejected a final appeal from a coal company after it and the ministry of energy and mines lost a lawsuit filed by the Indonesian NGO Walhi three years earlier.
4 major Asian nations cancel 80% of planned coal power projects
Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and the Philippines have canceled nearly 45 gigawatts of proposed coal power projects, a figure equal to more than one-quarter of the total installed capacity of Germany.
Borneo locals win a court battle to bar a coal miner from their land
After a two-year court battle, Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of a lawsuit that claims the permit for the mining firm should be revoked.
Indonesia raises minimum age for brides to end child marriage
Indonesia’s parliament has revised the country’s marriage law to lift the minimum age at which women can marry by three years to 19, a move welcomed by campaigners as a step toward curbing child marriage.
Bali bans single-use plastics
Bali Governor Wayan Koster announced that the Indonesian province of Bali is officially banning single-use plastics. The country produces 3.2 million tons of plastic annually.
Indonesia completes and begins operating its first-ever utility wind farm
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inaugurated the 247-acre Sidrap Wind Farm in Sindereng Rappang Regency, South Sulawesi, in July 2018. It immediately became the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia and among the first major non-hydro renewable energy projects in the world’s fourth most populous nation. The farm produces 75 MW of electricity and can power up to 70,000 households.
Indonesia becomes a unitary republic, ending Dutch colonial rule
Indonesia became a unitary republic on August 17, 1950, exactly five years after Sukarno and Hatta’s handwritten proclamation of independence in Jakarta. The path there ran through four years of guerrilla war, UN diplomacy, and a decisive U.S. threat to cut Marshall Plan aid to the Netherlands. It was among the twentieth century’s defining acts of decolonization.