Forest Carbon and EUDR in Lampung

Updated 2026-11-02 · 3 min read · By the akar.earth specialist team

Forest carbon in Lampung: Bukit Barisan Selatan and Way Kambas, robusta coffee and cocoa agroforestry, community forestry, mangroves and EUDR exposure.

Lampung’s forest carbon potential centres on the robusta coffee landscapes of the western highlands, where community forestry and agroforestry can restore tree cover around Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, plus restoration in Way Kambas and the east coast mangroves. It is one of Indonesia’s most EUDR-exposed provinces for coffee and cocoa.

Forest and land cover profile

Lampung is the southern tip of Sumatra, facing Java across the Sunda Strait. The Bukit Barisan range runs along its western side, while the east is low-lying plains that were heavily settled under transmigration programmes.

Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, shared with Bengkulu, is part of the UNESCO Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra. It holds lowland and hill forest and is home to Sumatran tigers, elephants and rhinos. Its edges have long been encroached by coffee gardens.

Way Kambas National Park on the east coast protects lowland forest, swamp and grassland, and is known for its elephant conservation centre and Sumatran rhino sanctuary. Fires in Way Kambas’s grassland and degraded forest are a recurring problem.

Peat and mangroves

Peat is limited compared with the provinces further north. Mangroves once lined much of the east coast and the bays of the south. Large areas were converted to shrimp ponds (tambak), and many ponds were later abandoned. Restoring abandoned ponds to mangrove is a practical blue carbon option, though tenure of pond land must be resolved first.

Main commodities and deforestation drivers

• Coffee: robusta from West Lampung, Tanggamus and neighbouring highlands makes Lampung one of Indonesia’s leading coffee provinces. Coffee from South Sumatra and Bengkulu is also traded and exported through Lampung. See robusta coffee.
• Cocoa: smallholder cocoa in Pesawaran, Tanggamus and other districts. See cacao.
• Pepper: historically important; not an EUDR commodity.
• Cassava, sugar cane, pineapple and maize: large-scale in the east. Not EUDR commodities.
• Oil palm and rubber: smallholders and estates on the plains.

Historically, coffee expansion into the national park and protection forest was the major driver of loss. Today the pressure is ongoing encroachment at forest edges, fire in Way Kambas, and mangrove conversion on the coast.

Social forestry and agroforestry

Lampung has been one of Indonesia’s pioneering provinces for community forestry. Coffee farmers in protection forest in districts such as West Lampung have held community forest licences (hutan kemasyarakatan) since the early national programme, under which they keep or plant multipurpose trees alongside coffee.

This history matters for both carbon and EUDR. The licence gives farmers a legal basis to farm in forest estate, which addresses the EUDR legality requirement. The tree-planting commitments create carbon removals that can, with good monitoring, be credited. Permenhut 6/2026 recognises social forestry groups as equal carbon market participants. See social forestry carbon.

Which carbon project types fit

Read coffee agroforestry carbon for design and accounting.

EUDR exposure

Coffee is the headline risk. Lampung coffee supply chains combine farms from several provinces, and some gardens are inside the national park. Plots in a national park cannot meet the legality requirement, regardless of when they were planted. Exporters need plot-level geolocation, segregation of compliant lots and documentation of land status. See EUDR and coffee.

Cocoa faces similar issues on a smaller scale. Palm oil and rubber follow standard smallholder traceability patterns. A quick way to gauge supplier readiness is our EUDR readiness check.

Elephant and tiger conflict

Human-wildlife conflict shapes land use around both national parks. Elephants raid crops near Way Kambas, and tigers occasionally attack livestock and people near Bukit Barisan Selatan. Projects that restore forest at the park edge can reduce or increase conflict depending on design. Buffer zone planting with crops elephants avoid, and agreements on corridors, should be part of the project description. Biodiversity co-benefits are real here, and certification of those benefits can raise credit value; see biodiversity.

Practical next steps

Combine farm mapping for EUDR with carbon baseline plots so one field campaign serves both. Check forest estate status, social forestry licences and land cover since 2020 for every plot. Compare with neighbouring South Sumatra and read the forest carbon hub for project types.