This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A surge in Indonesia's wood pellet and chip production is driving a new wave of deforestation, threatening the vast archipelago's remaining tropical forests, vital biodiversity hot spots and the land of Indigenous peoples, according to new satellite analysis from environmental nongovernmental organizations. Biomass power, predominantly generated by burning wood, is growing globally as countries accelerate their transition to use cleaner energy.
"The biomass industry has become a new driver of deforestation in Indonesia," said Timer Manurung, director of Indonesia-based organization Auriga Nusantara, which contributed to the new analysis. "And most of the biomass product is for export, with Japan as the biggest destination." As Japan's demand for Indonesian wood pellets skyrockets in an effort to meet its own renewable energy goals, critics say continued subsidies and weak oversight of the supply chain are likely to allow continued razing of pristine Indonesian forests. Worldwide bioenergy use has increased by over 55% between 2015 and 2024, according to the International Energy Agency.
In Japan, it accounts for a small but growing share of electricity generation—less than 6% in 2024, according to the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies. Environmentalists and scientists warn that continued rise in international demand coupled with weak domestic regulation will continue to accelerate deforestation. At the same time, critics say that using biomass to co-fire, instead of transitioning directly to clean energy, simply prolongs the use of highly polluting fossil fuels.
Biomass is organic material like plants, wood and waste, and many coal-fired power plants can be easily modified to burn it alongside coal to make energy. Experts including the IEA say it's important to meet the demand for biomass in a sustainable way, such as using waste and crop residue rather than converting forest land to grow bioenergy crops. Deforestation contributes to erosion, damages biodiverse areas, threatens wildlife and humans who rely on the forest, and intensifies disasters from extreme weather.
And many scientists and environmentalists have rejected the use of biomass altogether. They say burning wood-based biomass can emit more carbon than coal, and tree-cutting greatly reduces forests' ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere. In Indonesia, biomass production is already felling forests, with the growing demand threatening even greater loss, according to new analysis from environmental organizations Earth Insight, Auriga Nusantara and the Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago.
Manurung said while there are only a few biomass mills currently in operation in Indonesia, there is a growing trend of concession permits for biomass across the country, with at least 45 concessions granted, covering over 750,000 hectares (1.85 million acres) of natural forest. Indigenous communities living in the concession areas that rely on the forest will be affected, including the isolated Polahi community, said Manurung. "It will totally erase all the natural cover which provide a living and is an integral part of the culture to the Polahi people," he said.
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