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Security Protocols for Environmental Defenders
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Bambang Hero Saharjo
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDER CASES
Threats Against Environmental Defenders ( 2014 - 9 December 2025 )
Threats against environmental defenders have occurred across all major islands in Indonesia. Based on Auriga’s documentation, from 2014 to 9 December 2025, a total of 189 cases were recorded, involving 1,090 individual environmental defenders as victims. The highest number of cases occurred in Sumatra (51 cases), followed by Java (49 cases), Sulawesi (31 cases), Kalimantan (27 cases), Bali and Nusa Tenggara (20 cases), the Maluku Islands (8 cases), and Tanah Papua (3 cases).
These threats have occurred in nearly all provinces in Indonesia. Provinces with the highest number of cases include: North Sumatra (20 cases); Central Java and East Nusa Tenggara (15 cases each); East Java (12 cases); West Java and Central Kalimantan (11 cases each); Jakarta and Central Sulawesi (10 cases each); North Sulawesi (9 cases); East Kalimantan and Southeast Sulawesi (7 cases each); Bengkulu and North Maluku (6 cases each); South Kalimantan, Bangka Belitung, and Riau Islands (5 cases each); Jambi, West Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, and West Sumatra (4 cases each); Aceh (3 cases); Maluku, West Papua, and Riau (2 cases each); and Banten, Lampung, Papua, West Sulawesi, and South Sumatra (1 case each).
Numbers of threats to environmental defenders
( 2014 - 9 December 2025 )
Threats against Environmental Defenders have tended to increase year after year. This trend continued during the early years of the Prabowo–Gibran administration: as of 9 December 2025, at least 30 cases had been recorded. This figure is higher than in previous years. The Government’s policy direction, which places natural resource commodities as the primary driver of economic growth and industrial downstreaming, has contributed to the high number of threats and acts of violence against environmental defenders in Indonesia.
Types of threats against environmental defenders
( 2014 - 9 December 2025 )
Misuse of legal processes (criminalization and civil lawsuits/SLAPP) remains the most common type of threat experienced by Environmental Defenders in Indonesia, amounting to 115 out of 189 cases. This is followed by physical violence (27 cases), intimidation (25 cases), killings (15 cases), and deportation (2 cases).
Threats Against Environmental Defenders by Sector
( 2014 - 9 December 2025 )
As in previous years, the mining and energy sector remains the most threatening sector for environmental defenders. Out of 189 cases, 81 occurred in the mining and energy sector. The plantation sector contributed the second-highest number (49 cases), followed by the forestry sector (23 cases), agrarian/customary land issues (15 cases), the fisheries and maritime sector (11 cases), and the environmental sector (11 cases).