Bogor, W Java, Dec. 9 -- Environmental degradation should be treated as a serious priority by the government, as poorly managed land use, deforestation, and weak ecosystem protection risk pushing the country toward a critical tipping point.

As forests shrink and watersheds lose their natural ability to absorb rainfall, extreme weather events increasingly trigger floods and landslides that devastate both human settlements and wildlife habitats.

These cascading effects reveal how the failure to preserve the environment not only endangers vulnerable species but also magnifies risks for millions of people living in disaster-prone regions.

The catastrophic floods and landslides that tore through Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra in late...