Indonesia floods have reignited a national debate over deforestation after extreme rainfall and landslides in Sumatra left hundreds dead and thousands displaced late last year.
Weeks of heavy rain linked to Cyclone Senya in late November 2025 caused rivers to burst their banks across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra. Hillsides collapsed after prolonged downpours, burying homes and cutting off roads. In early December, shortages of food and medical supplies were reported in several affected areas as damaged infrastructure slowed aid deliveries. Official figures later reported more than 900 deaths, making it one of the deadliest flood disasters in Indonesia in recent years.
The environmental impact extended beyond human casualties. Mid-December assessments warned that flooding in parts of Sumatra had severely affected forest habitat critical to the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan, raising concerns about long-term ecological damage in already fragmented landscapes.
Permit revocations after the disaster
As rescue operations ended and reconstruction began, scrutiny shifted to land use in upstream areas. The government announced in January 2026 that it had revoked 28 business permits linked to forestry, mining and plantation activities. Authorities said investigations found violations of environmental and land-use regulations in areas affected by the floods.
The revoked licences include 22 forest utilisation permits covering around 1,000,000 hectares, along with several mining and plantation concessions. Officials described the decision as part of an accountability process following the disaster, and said further reviews of land concessions in vulnerable watersheds are ongoing.
Environmental experts have long warned that forest loss increases flood and landslide risk. Forests absorb rainfall and slow surface runoff, while tree roots help stabilise soil on steep slopes. When vegetation is removed, water flows more rapidly into rivers and loose soil is more likely to collapse during intense storms.
Parts of Sumatra have experienced significant deforestation over the past two decades, driven by agricultural expansion, logging and extractive industries. Researchers and civil society groups argue that this long-term land conversion reduced the landscape’s capacity to absorb extreme rainfall, amplifying the impact of the November 2025 storm.
Ongoing risks during the rainy season
The danger did not end with the initial flooding. In January 2026, heavy rainfall triggered a separate landslide on Java that killed eight people and left dozens missing, underscoring how vulnerable saturated slopes remain during the monsoon season.
Government officials have not attributed the Sumatra disaster to a single cause. They point to unusually intense rainfall as the immediate trigger, while acknowledging that land management practices can influence how severely communities are affected. Legal and administrative action against companies found to have breached regulations may continue in the coming months.
Indonesia is regularly exposed to floods and landslides during the rainy season, and climate variability is increasing the likelihood of extreme rainfall events. Warmer sea surface temperatures can intensify storms, raising concerns about future disaster risk in both rural and urban areas.
For many residents of Sumatra, the focus remains on recovery. Thousands are still living in temporary shelters, and rebuilding homes, roads and public facilities will take months. Local authorities face the dual challenge of reconstruction and reducing vulnerability before the next rainy season.
The permit revocations represent one of the clearest links yet drawn by the government between environmental governance and disaster impact. Whether they lead to broader reforms in land-use policy remains uncertain. What is clear is that the scale of the floods has intensified scrutiny of how Indonesia manages its forests at a time when climate-related risks are growing.
Featured image credit: Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management | Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
