Indonesia to Probe Firms Linked to Sumatra Floods as Environmentalists Question Political Will

Indonesia’s Environment Ministry has launched investigations into several companies accused of exacerbating the catastrophic floods and landslides across Sumatra — but environmental groups say the move will be limited by political interests reaching “the highest levels of government”.

Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said four companies had been sanctioned for activities that, he claimed, increased ecological pressure in upstream river basins in North Sumatra. Three named firms — PT Agincourt Resources, PT Perkebunan Nusantara III, and PT North Sumatera Hydro Energy — have had their operations temporarily halted pending further audit. Hanif did not disclose the identity of the fourth company.

He added that criminal charges had not been ruled out if “severe violations” were proven. PT Agincourt, operator of the Martabe gold mine in South Tapanuli, said it would cooperate fully with the government’s audit. The remaining companies have not issued statements.

“Only a fraction of the corporate footprint”

But activists say the government’s focus covers only a small part of the problem.

Melky Nahar, coordinator of the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), said the four firms represented “only a fraction” of the corporations operating in Sumatra’s forested regions. Many companies, he argued, have links to influential political figures — including President Prabowo Subianto.

Melky cited PT Tusam Hutani Lestari, a forestry company operating in Central Aceh, which he alleges is connected to Prabowo, referring to the president’s own admission during the 2019 presidential debate that he controlled large tracts of land, including in Aceh.

Company records from the Law and Human Rights Ministry show the firm’s president director is former fisheries minister Edhy Prabowo, who assumed the role in August 2024. His predecessor, Prasetyo Hadi, now the Minister of State Secretariat, also holds a senior post within Prabowo’s Gerindra Party.

“It will be impossible to enforce laws freely if the president himself is entangled in a similar conflict of interest,” Melky said.

BBC News Indonesia contacted Edhy Prabowo and Prasetyo Hadi for comment but received no reply. In a written statement, PT Tusam Hutani Lestari said it remained committed to environmental protection and sustainability.

Greenpeace: “This is state failure, not fate”

Greenpeace Indonesia has gone further, calling the disaster — which has killed more than 700 people across Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra — “a clear failure of the state to protect its environment”.

Campaign coordinator Iqbal Damanik demanded the resignation of three senior ministers:

Raja Juli Antoni, Minister of Forestry, whom he accused of weak supervision and indiscriminate licensing;

Bahlil Lahadalia, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, for what he called “massive mining permits” across forest zones;

Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, Environment Minister, who he said oversaw the AMDAL environmental impact assessments that should have prevented high-risk projects.

“This amounts to negligence. These three ministers must apologise and step down,” Iqbal said.

Rejecting government claims that the floods were an unavoidable natural event, Greenpeace pointed to Batang Toru — a mountainous region crowded with mining and hydropower projects — where extensive land clearing has made slopes extremely vulnerable during heavy rainfall.

Iqbal said field observations also disproved government claims that logs carried by floodwaters were naturally fallen timber. “The evidence shows sawn logs. This points to illegal logging and a failure of enforcement,” he said.

“Politics has overridden science”

Iqbal criticised what he described as the government’s tendency to downplay scientific warnings about climate impacts and ecological degradation in order to protect political and commercial interests.

“The saddest thing for environmental activists is when their predictions come true. We are always told not to look for who is responsible. But this is not fate — it is policy failure,” he said.

The wider scale of the disaster

Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reported on 10 December 2025 that the flooding and landslides have:

killed 964 people
left 262 missing
damaged 157,900 homes
affected 52 districts/cities
destroyed more than 1,200 public facilities, 584 schools, 215 health centres, 423 houses of worship, and 498 bridges

The government has not indicated whether the environmental audits will expand to firms with political connections, nor whether the crisis will prompt major policy changes.