Indonesia orders 8 ministries to protect Sumatran and Bornean elephant habitat

What is the background?

Indonesia’s elephant habitat has fragmented sharply in recent decades, with the number of distinct habitat areas dropping from 42 to just 21 as development expanded across Sumatra and Kalimantan. Sumatran elephant habitat protection had previously been handled through scattered, lower-level regulations rather than a single instruction binding multiple government sectors at once.

What happened?

President Prabowo Subianto issued Presidential Instruction No. 8/2026 on the Conservation of the Population and Habitat of the Sumatran Elephant and the Bornean Elephant, directing the protection of 5.4 million hectares of Sumatran elephant habitat and 19,141 hectares of Bornean elephant habitat. The instruction bans the issuance of new permits within these habitat areas and places direct enforcement responsibility on the national police as well as governors, regents, and mayors across Sumatra and Kalimantan.

The decree also requires the Ministry of Public Works to consult the Ministry of Forestry’s elephant home-range maps before approving infrastructure projects, and mandates wildlife corridors or underpasses wherever a project — such as a toll road — would otherwise cut through elephant migration routes.

How did it happen?

“The Presidential Instruction regulates the involvement of various sectors to ensure the protection of elephant populations and habitats while continuing development,” Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said. “For example, if the Public Works Ministry builds a road and disrupts the elephants’ home range, a dedicated [wildlife] corridor must be constructed.”

The instruction binds eight cabinet ministries alongside the national police and regional governments, rather than leaving habitat protection to the Ministry of Forestry alone — a structure meant to stop infrastructure and land-use decisions made elsewhere in government from undermining conservation commitments after the fact. Wahdi Azmi of the IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group said the decree “reflects policy direction, ensuring integrated protection through cross-sectoral collaboration.”

Why does it matter?

A habitat network that shrank from 42 areas to 21 shows fragmentation was accelerating faster than piecemeal protections could counter it; binding eight ministries plus police and regional governments to the same set of habitat maps closes off the routine way conservation rules get undercut — one agency approving a road or permit that another agency’s wildlife protections never accounted for. Making the Ministry of Forestry’s maps a mandatory checkpoint before infrastructure approval, rather than an advisory input, changes elephant habitat from a competing interest to a fixed constraint on development planning.

Minister Antoni closed his announcement by naming specific elephants the instruction is meant to protect: “All ministries mandated by this Presidential Instruction are obligated to protect the homes of Seroja, Domang, and their friends.”

What were the key results?

• Presidential Instruction No. 8/2026 protects 5.4 million hectares of Sumatran elephant habitat
• 19,141 hectares of Bornean (Kalimantan) elephant habitat also protected
• New permits banned across both habitat areas
• Eight cabinet ministries, the national police, and regional governments bound by the decree
• Ministry of Public Works must consult Forestry Ministry elephant home-range maps before approving projects
• Wildlife corridors or underpasses mandated where infrastructure would cut migration routes
• Habitat areas had fallen from 42 to 21 before the decree, prompting the intervention

What happens next?

The Indonesian government is drafting a national elephant conservation strategy (SRAK) for 2026–2036 to sit alongside the new decree.

Regional governments across Sumatra and North Kalimantan are expected to begin incorporating the Forestry Ministry’s home-range maps into local infrastructure planning.

The Ministry of Forestry said it will develop a roadmap specifically addressing human-elephant conflict as habitat protections take effect.

World Animal Rescue Network funds anti-snare patrols, rapid veterinary response, and human-elephant coexistence programmes for Sumatran and Bornean elephants, and said binding legal protections like this decree give that donor-funded fieldwork a stronger foundation to build on. Readers who want to support that work can donate to save an elephant.

The IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group said it will continue monitoring implementation to confirm the decree translates into on-the-ground habitat protection.