Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Agriculture, livestock and food · Indonesia · 2024

Papua food and energy estate (Indonesia)

Nature's voice · report
More than 50,000 hectares of my forest were lost.
Cleared in Merauke, per Mighty Earth (advocacy group).
Did nature suffer? Yes. Harm is on record. Disputed
What the record lacks: 3 none on record · 1 insufficient · 2 disputed See the gaps
Accounts of the harm differ
Is the Merauke project driving deforestation?
  • Press and investigations Kompas: Reported the project criticised as triggering deforestation, with 486,939 ha of forest released. Kompas
  • Communities and civil society Mighty Earth: More than 50,000 ha cleared in Merauke. Mighty Earth
  • Government and regulators Government of Indonesia: Reported as saying it was ready to reforest. Kompas

Indonesia declared a food and energy project in Merauke, South Papua, a National Strategic Project in 2024. Sources put its size at between 1.2 million and over 2 million hectares, and report forest clearing with military participation.

486,939 haForest area released for the project, Merauke
As reported by Kompas, October 2025. Sources give the overall project area as between 1.2 million and over 2 million hectares.

Status As of October 2025: forest release and military-assisted clearing reported in Merauke; no court ruling or independent evaluation found.

What?
Forest release and clearing for a food and energy estate in Merauke, South Papua, declared a National Strategic Project. Project Multatuli
Where?
Merauke, South Papua, Indonesia. Kompas
When?
From 2024 (National Strategic Project declaration); clearing reported through 2025. Kompas
Who?
Gained
  • Ten companies holding recommendation letters for forest release — Recommended access to 541,094 ha of forest-estate land. Project Multatuli
  • Sugar and bioethanol investors — Named in the sources reviewed as investors in the project.
Lost
  • Malind, Maklew, Yei and Khimaima communities — Customary (adat) lands affected. Kompas
Harmed
  • Forest of Merauke — 486,939 ha released; more than 50,000 ha cleared according to Mighty Earth. Kompas
Why?
Presented as food and energy sovereignty; planned crops include sugarcane for bioethanol. Mongabay
How?
Forest-estate release decisions and recommendation letters; clearing by companies and by TNI battalions. Project Multatuli
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

In 2024 Indonesia declared its Merauke food and energy project in South Papua a National Strategic Project (PSN). Sources describe its area as between 1.2 million and more than 2 million hectares; Mongabay, citing the research group CELIOS, reported a project of 2 to 3 million hectares in December 2024.

Project Multatuli, citing the Jakarta Post and the advocacy group Pusaka, reported that ten companies had received recommendation letters for the release of a total of 541,094 hectares of forest from the forest estate, and that in July 2024 a ministerial decision opened 13,540 hectares, including protected forest, to food infrastructure linked to defence.

Kompas reported in October 2025 that 486,939 hectares of forest had been released for Merauke and that battalions of the Indonesian military (TNI) were clearing land; the figures in the sources reviewed are five battalions and at least 2,000 soldiers. The Jakarta Post reported in March 2025 that concerns had been raised about the military's role in the project.

Mighty Earth, an advocacy group, reported that more than 50,000 hectares had been cleared in Merauke. Mongabay's December 2024 report described plans for about 2 million hectares of sugarcane and bioethanol and said indigenous consent had not been obtained.

The sources reviewed describe the affected customary (adat) lands as those of the Malind, Maklew, Yei and Khimaima peoples.

  1. 2024Merauke food and energy project declared a National Strategic Project; July: ministerial decision opens 13,540 ha, including protected forest, to defence-linked food infrastructure
  2. 2024December: Mongabay reports a 2 to 3 million hectare project and the risk of a carbon backfire from sugarcane clearing
  3. 2025March: Jakarta Post reports concerns over the TNI's role. October: Kompas reports 486,939 ha of forest released and TNI battalions clearing land

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

Where accounts differ

Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.

Is the Merauke project driving deforestation?
Press and investigations
Kompas

Reported the project criticised as triggering deforestation, with 486,939 ha of forest released.

Kompas
Communities and civil society
Mighty Earth

More than 50,000 ha cleared in Merauke.

Mighty Earth
Government and regulators
Government of Indonesia

Reported as saying it was ready to reforest.

Kompas
Was indigenous consent obtained?
Press and investigations
Mongabay

Indigenous consent was not obtained for the planned sugarcane and bioethanol area.

Mongabay

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • Presented as 'food and energy sovereignty'.
    Indonesian government framing, as summarised in the sources reviewed · Kompas

Recorded

  • 486,939 ha of forest released for Merauke; TNI battalions clearing land; customary lands affected (Kompas, October 2025).
    Kompas
  • Ten companies received recommendation letters for release of 541,094 ha of forest; a July 2024 ministerial decision opened 13,540 ha, including protected forest, to defence-linked food infrastructure.
    Project Multatuli
  • More than 50,000 ha cleared in Merauke, according to Mighty Earth.
    Mighty Earth

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

Not published
No figure published.

Gained elsewhere

Not totalled
Currency: · Window: . All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

Responses on record

  • Government of Indonesia (October 2025): Kompas headline reports the government saying it was ready to carry out reforestation, in response to criticism that the project triggers deforestation. · Kompas

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Forest released
486,939 ha
For Merauke, per Kompas (October 2025)
Cleared so far
50,000+ ha
Mighty Earth, an advocacy group (2025)
Independent ecological evaluation
Not on record
None found in the sources reviewed

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
No court caseNo independent ecological evaluationDisplacement reported

Nature

  • Disputed Is the Merauke project driving deforestation?

Court

Accounts

  • Disputed Was indigenous consent obtained?

Record

  • None on record Project area: sources give between 1.2 million and over 2 million hectares (Project Multatuli) and 2 to 3 million hectares (Mongabay/CELIOS); no single official figure is cited.
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: the July 2024 ministerial decision opening 13,540 ha, and that the customary owners (Malind, Maklew, Yei, Khimaima) are not legally recognised.
  • None on record Indonesia received a results-based forest payment and later large-scale clearing began in Merauke; no source on record establishes a causal link.

Did the harm stop?

Clearing was reported as continuing as of October 2025; no halt is on record in the sources reviewed.

Who paid?

Customary landowners and the forest, according to the sources reviewed; no compensation is on record.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers

Press and investigations

Communities and civil society

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Science and environment

Hectare (ha)
A unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres, about 2.5 acres. 100 hectares make one square kilometre.
Similar cases
Agriculture, livestock and food · Indonesia · 2020–2025
Indonesia seizure of illegal plantations and transfer to Agrinas Palma
Same type: Agriculture, livestock and foodSame country
Agriculture, livestock and food · Indonesia · 2020
Indonesia's palm garden amnesty collected 822 billion rupiah by May 2024
Same type: Agriculture, livestock and foodSame country
Agriculture, livestock and food · Water use · Chemical pollution · Protected area / relocation · Netherlands · 1990–2026
Dutch nitrogen crisis and farm buyouts
Same type: Agriculture, livestock and foodHarm to nature disputed
Agriculture, livestock and food · India · 2021–2024
PepsiCo potato variety registration (India)
Same type: Agriculture, livestock and foodSame region
Agriculture, livestock and food · Uzbekistan · 2017–2026
Uzbek cotton boycott ends forced labour
Same type: Agriculture, livestock and foodSame region
Agriculture, livestock and food · Sri Lanka · 2021
Sri Lanka fertiliser ban
Same type: Agriculture, livestock and foodSame region