By Linda Yanti Sulistiawati, Senior Research Fellow, Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL), National University of Singapore.
After several years with minor incidence of forest fires, we are witnessing the ‘come back’ of another massive forest fire crisis in the country. As of August 2026, the forest fires have crippled provinces in Jambi, Riau, South Sumatra, and Western, Central, South, and Eastern Kalimantan (BBC, 2026). Indonesia is expected to face heightened climate risks associated with a strong El Niño and prolonged drought conditions (Bloomberg, 2026), and the unpreparedness of the country coupled with shifting policy on priorities, land use change, peatland degradation, weak enforcement, and political choices brought back the calamity.
Equally concerning is the continued push for large-scale land development projects, including food estate initiatives that have involved the conversion of extensive forest areas in Kalimantan and Papua (Kompas, 2026). The renewed wave of fires and haze in 2026 should therefore not be viewed as an isolated disaster, but as a warning that environmental governance remains vulnerable to short-term economic and political priorities. The question is not simply why the fires have returned, but why lessons from previous crises have not been fully internalized?
Undeniably, this crisis was foreseeable. Warnings about the likelihood of severe drought conditions associated with a strong El Niño had been circulating well before the fires escalated in 2026. Scientists, including those from Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), had highlighted the heightened risk of drought, while the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report underscored the growing likelihood and severity of climate-related extremes in many regions. The return of widespread forest and peatland fires should therefore not have come as a surprise. What is surprising is the apparent lack of preparedness. The government should have anticipated these risks and taken preventive measures long before the dry season intensified.
The lesson from this crisis is that Indonesia needs stronger forestry governance and greater accountability. Preventing future disasters requires clear responsibility for concession holders, improved land-use planning, stronger environmental impact assessments for major projects and activities, and greater transparency through public disclosure of fire data and concession maps. It also demands better coordination among national ministries, provincial and local governments, companies, and communities. Fire prevention, preparedness, and rapid intervention must become central pillars of environmental governance, rather than reactive measures implemented only after a crisis has already unfolded.
Forest governance in Indonesia must function across all levels of government, from the national and provincial levels down to districts and villages. While many environmental policies are formulated in Jakarta, their success ultimately depends on local implementation, which is shaped by institutional capacity, budget availability, and political priorities (Sulistiawati & Rembeth, 2025). In practice, forest fire prevention has often struggled to attract sufficient attention and resources at the local level, particularly in the face of competing development priorities and fiscal constraints. Effective forest governance therefore requires stronger coordination across levels of government and sustained investment in local implementation and enforcement.
We can also see that there is a lack of enforcement against illegal burning in Indonesia. Many fires originated from land-clearing activities for agriculture, plantations, or other commercial uses. The government has investigated 42 concession-holding companies, imposed administrative sanctions on six and named two companies as suspects (CNA, 2026), but this needs to be elevated and continuous. The Ministry of Forestry needs to closely coordinate with the police, prosecutors, and local governments. This might include organizing continuous special training in environment and forest protection for prosecutors, and strengthening the currently existing environmental training for judges, with additional special focus on forest protection.
National strategic projects should not proceed at the expense of forests, ecosystems, or the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities. Indonesia cannot continue pursuing development pathways that increase environmental risks while expecting different outcomes; sustainable growth requires protecting both people and the natural systems on which they depend. Additionally, the government must show greater restraint and responsibility in both its policies and public statements. What Indonesia needs is not more off-the-cuff comments from government officials that insult the intelligence of its people, but clear, responsible, and accountable leadership.
Communities and businesses should see clear economic benefits from preventing fires and protecting forests. Simply put, good behaviour must become more rewarding than destructive behaviour if Indonesia hopes to break the cycle of recurring forest and peatland fires.
Finally, regional cooperation in Southeast Asia is equally important because Indonesia’s forest and peatland fires generate transboundary impacts that extend well beyond its borders. Malaysia and Singapore are among the countries most affected by the resulting haze, when at the same time, some concession areas implicated in land-use change and plantation development involve companies with commercial links to these neighbouring countries. Has the time come for Singapore to implement their Transboundary Haze Pollution act of 2014? In any case, for the Southeast Asian region, stronger cooperation on monitoring, information sharing, corporate accountability, sustainable supply chains, and joint efforts to prevent and respond to fires are desperately needed.
At the regional level, ASEAN has already established a legal framework through the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (2002), the world’s first regional agreement specifically designed to address transboundary haze. However, the effectiveness of the agreement depends on its implementation. Greater commitment to implementing the Agreement, coupled with stronger national governance and accountability mechanisms, would help transform the region’s response from crisis management to long-term prevention and resilience.
Preventing future fire disasters requires Indonesia to shift from reactive crisis management to proactive governance. This means protecting forests and peatlands, strengthening accountability and transparency, and aligning development policies with long-term environmental sustainability. Otherwise, recurring fires will continue to threaten the country and the region.
Linda is a Senior Research Fellow at APCEL NUS Law, Singapore, and an Associate Professor of Law in Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. She is an internationally recognised scholar in Indonesian international environmental law and her research has established her as a leading expert who is frequently consulted by the Indonesian government and international organizations. Her research focuses on international environmental issues, such as climate change, REDD+, land issues and customary (adat) issues. Linda was a member of the delegation leading Indonesia’s negotiations of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. From 2018 to 2022, Linda is a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC AR 6).
