Jakarta – Forest and land fires (karhutla) continue to burn in various regions of Indonesia, while law enforcement efforts against the parties responsible have not shown results comparable with the scale of the ecological disaster that is occurring.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) believes that the handling of forest and land fires has still not touched the root of the problem, especially land control by corporations, weak supervision of concessions, and inadequate action against companies whose activities contribute to forest and land fires.
Walhi's latest monitoring of fires found at least 75,621 hot spots in 37 provinces during September-October 2026. Meanwhile, Nusantara Atlas data recorded that the area of forest and land fires as of September 2026 reached 1,912,926 hectares, or around 29 times the area of DKI Jakarta Province. This figure shows the huge scale of the fires that are occurring and the urgency of taking steps that are not only oriented towards extinguishing the fires, but also towards prevention, environmental restoration and law enforcement that targets the parties responsible.
Walhi's spatial analysis also found that hot spots in September-October 2026 were spread across company concession areas, including 945 Right to Cultivate (HGU) and 353 Forest Concession Business License (PBPH) areas including those in National Strategic Projects (PSN) for the energy and food sector in Papua. This finding strengthens the allegation that forest and land fires are closely related to large-scale land clearing and weak supervision of permit holders, even though permit holders are obliged to prevent and deal with fires in their concession areas.
Walhi Forest and Gardens Campaigner Umi Ma'rufah believes that amid the scale of the problem, the government's law enforcement efforts are still far from adequate. To date, the National Police (Polri) have reportedly named 223 individuals and 20 corporations as suspects, including three foreign investment companies (PMA), with a total land area of 29,168.78 hectares. "This area is only around 1.5 percent of the total fire area. So, who is responsible for the other 98.5 percent?", said Ma'rufah.
Meanwhile, the Forestry Ministry has recently imposed administrative sanctions on 32 companies, and the Environment Ministry (KLH) has sealed 57 business entities. These numbers are very small compared to the thousands of concessions that have been detected as having hotspots. What is very unfortunate is that so far there has been no action from the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN).
"Karhutla is not a natural disaster, but a disaster that is allowed to happen due to weak law enforcement and strong business interests. When hotspots are found in hundreds of concessions, while only a small portion are prosecuted, the message that reaches corporations is that burning is not risky. The state must stop normalising this impunity", asserted Ma'rufah.
Due to this situation, Walhi is urging the government and law enforcement officials to thoroughly investigate all burned concessions, including tracing the responsibility of the corporations and the owners behind them, not just the perpetrators on the ground. Walhi is also asking the Forestry and the Environment Ministries to expand and strengthen sanctions, including revoking the permits of companies whose areas were repeatedly burned, and urging the Ministry of ATR/BPN to immediately act on burned HGU areas by evaluating and revoking land use rights where they are proven to be negligent or involved.
In addition, Walhi is demanding that the government stop expanding concessions and large-scale projects in fire-prone areas, including evaluating energy and food PSNs in Papua. The government is also being asked to transparently disclose concession data, monitoring results and law enforcement processes to the public, as well as ensure environmental restoration and health protection for haze victims.
Indonesian Forum for the Environment
Jl. Tegal Parang Utara Number 14, Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta
Email: information@walhi.or.id, Instagram: @walhi.nasional, X: @walhi.national, TikTok: @walhi.nasional
Mobile: (+628115501980)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Karhutla Tak Tertangani, Penegakan Hukum Masih Sangat Lemah".]
Source: https://www.walhi.or.id/karhutla-tak-tertangani-penegakan-hukum-masih-sangat-lemah
