Indonesian Government Expands Alert Zone Over Forest and Land Fire Impacts

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Indonesia reports a concerning surge in forest and land fires (karhutla), with the burned area reaching approximately 202,004 hectares by July 2026. This figure has surpassed the fire records for the same period in 2019 and 2023, two years that have long been known as the worst haze crisis period in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia's Minister of Forestry, Raja Juli Antoni, revealed the data during a ministerial-level coordination meeting held online on August 13, 2026. The meeting, led by the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, discussed measures to anticipate the impact of smoke from fires on the health, education, and socio-economic life of residents in the affected areas.

The Indonesian government blames the El Nino phenomenon, which arrived earlier than expected, as the main trigger for the widespread fires this year. Raja Juli emphasized that climate change has intensified El Nino, making the risk of forest fires greater than in previous years.

About 57 percent of the burned area is within forested regions, while the remaining 43 percent occurs on land used for other purposes such as plantations. The provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan, including Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, and West Kalimantan, are priority areas for handling due to the long history of fires in those regions.

What worries local officials is that new fire hotspots are now starting to emerge in areas that were previously not categorized as vulnerable. This situation forces the government to expand the coverage of hotspot monitoring, field patrols, and early detection to areas that were previously considered safe.

Smoke from the fires has become a particular concern because it has the potential to disrupt residents' respiratory health as well as school and economic activities in the affected areas, an impact that often extends to neighboring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia in previous years. To respond to this, the government has established an integrated information center at the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) to disseminate data and updates on the forest and land fire situation periodically.

The public and international observers can now follow the development of fire hotspots in Indonesia in real-time thru the SIPONGI+ platform owned by the Ministry of Forestry at sipongi.gakkum.kehutanan.go.id. The Indonesian government has expressed its commitment to continuously strengthening inter-ministerial coordination to minimize the impact of this fire crisis on the lives of residents in the affected areas.