(San Francisco, July 11, 2025) – President Emmanuel Macron should use Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s upcoming Bastille Day visit to press for urgent climate action, forest protection, and rights improvements, Climate Rights International said today. Prabowo, a former general implicated in serious human rights abuses, is now overseeing plans for mass deforestation and expanded coal reliance at the same time environmental defenders are facing increased threats.
The visit follows Macron’s high-profile meeting with Prabowo in Jakarta in May, where the two leaders touted strengthened ties on food security, forestry, biodiversity monitoring, and military cooperation. But civil society and environmental groups have raised alarm over plans by Prabowo’s administration to convert millions of hectares of forest into monoculture plantations for food and energy estate projects.
“Macron has claimed to be a leader in the fight against the climate crisis, but Prabowo, his so-called brother and special Bastille Day guest, is a grave threat to people, forests, and the global climate,” said Brad Adams, Executive Director at Climate Rights International. “Clearing millions of hectares of forest would devastate ecosystems, destroy the lives of Indigenous and other local communities who have called them home for generations, and accelerate emissions.”
Since taking office, Prabowo has moved quickly to expand the role of the Indonesian military in civilian governance and deployment. That includes assigning the armed forces a leading role in the food estate program. Controversial recent amendments to Indonesia’s armed forces law authorize military involvement in business, governance, and law enforcement. The government has also announced plans to create 100 new battalions, including “food battalions” tasked with agricultural development in forested areas. These changes have sparked concerns about weakened safeguards, reduced accountability, and growing risks to environmental defenders.
Prabowo’s proposed food estate program would allow for the clearing of up to 20 million hectares of land—roughly equivalent to a third of France. At least 2 million hectares of this is believed to be primary forest, some of the most biodiverse and carbon-rich ecosystems on the planet.
This food program is the latest in a long history of top-down agricultural projects in Indonesia that have often failed. Similar projects dating back to the dictatorial Suharto era displaced rural communities and left behind degraded land, poor harvests, and social unrest. Today’s version follows the same playbook: clearing forests to grow rice or sugarcane in unsuitable ecosystems, risking crop failure, forest fires, and long-term soil damage.
“Prabowo’s climate and human rights record demands scrutiny from Macron, not celebration,” Adams said. “You can’t lead the green transition when you’re rolling out the red carpet for someone orchestrating massive deforestation. France needs to stand with the people who are defending their land, not the forces trying to destroy it.”
Since Prabowo took office in October 2024, environmental defenders, Indigenous leaders, land rights activists, and community members who speak out against destructive development have faced harassment, intimidation, and even lawsuits. Rather than protect those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, the Indonesian government has too often treated them as obstacles.
In 2024, Climate Rights International released “Nickel Unearthed” which exposed how the rapid expansion of Indonesia’s nickel industry, spurred by global demand for electric vehicle batteries, has resulted in land grabs, deforestation, and pollution. The report also documented how Indonesia has aggressively expanded captive coal plants to power processing of the nickel, undermining emission goals and deepening dependence on fossil fuels. Last month, a follow-up report, “Ongoing Harms, Limited Accountability,” chronicled how environmental damage and community displacement continue with impunity. The Indonesian government has failed to meaningfully enforce environmental regulations, while companies linked to abuses have faced no meaningful legal or financial consequences.
“Macron has a choice: use his influence to demand real environmental protections or be complicit in the destruction of large swaths of forest and the communities that depend on them,” Adams said. “Protecting Indonesia’s forests and respecting human rights must be non-negotiable pillars of any partnership. Anything less would be a betrayal of the ideals that Macron claims to champion.”
