Fears over world’s largest deforestation project in Indonesia

The Indonesian government’s food estate project aims to produce sugarcane-derived bioethanol, rice and other food crops (Yusuf Wahil/Mighty Earth via AP)

Indonesia plans to clear forests roughly the size of Belgium to produce sugarcane-derived bioethanol, rice and other food crops, potentially displacing Indigenous groups who rely on the land to survive.

Local communities say they are already experiencing harm from the government-backed project, which environmental watchdogs say is the largest current planned deforestation operation in the world.