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View all search resultsUnchecked businesses blamed for raging wildfires
Lands within business concessions of a size roughly equivalent to the total area of Jakarta have been burned since January, with most fire coming from areas earmarked for oil palm plantations, according to a recent analysis from an environmental group.
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Fire fighters with the Forest and Land Fire Control Brigade spray water to extinguish a fire on Aug. 12 in an area close to an oil palm plantation affected by wildfire in Pulang Pisau regency in Central Kalimantan. (Reuters/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana)
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early a quarter of forest and peatland areas burned across Indonesia are located inside business concessions with some having been repeatedly engulfed in fire, according to a recent analysis, exposing gaps in forestry law enforcement intended to mitigate wildfires.
Months of widespread wildfire in Sumatra, Kalimantan and other forest and peatland regions in the archipelago have created a haze reaching as far as the Philippines, prompting local authorities in the neighboring country to issue health warnings for their community.
Between January and July, at least 285,914 hectares of land have been burned across the country, according to figures released by independent forest monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas.
Of the total figure, around 68,324 ha is located within industrial concessions, roughly the size of Jakarta.
A majority of the fires came from oil palm concessions, with blazes ravaging at least 15,146 ha of area plotted for oil palm plantation, followed by 12,120 ha of mining concessions and 10,485 ha of pulpwood plantations.
Meanwhile, around 25 percent of all hot spots found in August were located in peatland ecosystems within business concessions.
This year’s El Niño may have provided extra fuel for the wildfire in Indonesia, but the practice of deliberately burning the land to make way for agriculture and other business practices often causes the blazes to spiral out of control, said David Gaveau, founder of geospatial company TheTreeMap which operates Nusantara Atlas.
