Deforestation in Indonesia hits record low, but experts fear a rebound The deforestation rate in Indonesia last year fell by 75% to its lowest level since monitoring began in 1990, according to the government. Officials attribute this mainly to government policies such as moratoriums on clearing primary forests and issuing licenses for new oil palm plantations. Environmentalists say other factors contributed, including an unusually wet year, declining palm oil prices, and an economic slump that led to a slowdown in forest-clearing activity such as plantation expansion and logging. They’ve called on the government to keep aiming for even lower rates of deforestation, and cautioned against pursuing economic growth emulating Brazil’s deforestation-driven extractive model.