Escalating Fires and Public Health Impact
Indonesia is currently battling a surge in wildfires that have devastated vast forest and peat ecosystems, creating a toxic haze that has extended beyond the country’s borders to Malaysia and Singapore. According to AFP, the crisis has led to more than 170,000 cases of respiratory illness in haze-affected provinces across Sumatra and Borneo in just the last week.
The environmental impact is significant. Satellite monitoring from the Nusantara Atlas project estimates that nearly 896,000 hectares had burned by the end of August, an area more than five times the size of Greater London. South Papua province has been identified as the most affected region, with over 168,000 hectares razed.
Drivers of the Crisis
While the El Nino weather phenomenon is contributing to the unusually dry conditions, experts emphasize that human activity remains the primary driver. Forestry lecturer Ati Dwi Nurhayati of IPB University noted that while El Nino acts as a trigger, human-led slash-and-burn land clearing and the degradation of peatlands are responsible for the intensity of the fires. Because peat ecosystems are highly flammable when drained for agriculture, fires within these areas can smoulder for days, making containment extremely difficult.
NGO Pantau Gambut reported that over 212,000 hotspots were detected in peat ecosystems during the first eight months of this year, more than double the number recorded during the 2015 El Nino event.
Government Response and Skepticism
In response to the crisis, the Indonesian government has deployed firefighters and volunteers, while also utilizing cloud-seeding and water-bombing techniques. Authorities have begun taking regulatory action, revoking the permits of five companies accused of contributing to the fires, with dozens more currently under investigation.
President Prabowo Subianto has ordered the establishment of a new government agency specifically tasked with managing tropical peat and mangrove ecosystems and overseeing fire prevention. However, the move has been met with caution. Critics like Putra Saptian of Pantau Gambut argue that the focus should be on the substantive effectiveness of the mandate rather than merely creating new bureaucratic structures, especially given that a previous similar agency’s mandate expired in 2024.