The Indonesian government has decided to change the designation of large parts of the country from protected forest to available for food production.
While in theory this might sound like good news for indonesians, this is far from the truth. They are specifically aiming this change at-large agroforestry business. These are multinational corporations that will buy out vast areas of land owned by Indonesians, cut down the rainforest, remove the ability for locals to make money and do huge damage to the environment in the process.
There is already an area the size of Italy planted with crops within Indonesia. Now while it is suggested that the population is going to grow enormously, and that therefore in the future they will need more land to grow food, this isn’t necessarily true. It also certainly isn’t required for these huge farmlands to sell the food to indonesians.
On the other hand, this could do vast damage to the future of Indonesia’s Wildlife.