Antara News·Indonesia·Tuesday, October 13, 2026 at 03:50 PM UTC

Indonesia aims to extinguish forest fires within a month

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Bayu Saputra, Raka Adji

We will remove the clause permitting land clearing by burning up to two hectares,

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister of Environment Jumhur Hidayat aims to extinguish all forest and land fires in less than a month, as joint teams continue firefighting operations across several affected areas.

"Based on discussions with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), it should take a few weeks (to extinguish the fires). But since intensity is already starting to decline, hopefully it will be less (than a month)," he said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

However, as fires persist in several regions, firefighting efforts still face several obstacles, including limited water supplies and operational challenges for water-bombing aircraft.

To prevent recurring blazes, the government is initiating a revision of Article 69, Paragraph (2) of Law No. 32/2009 on Environmental Protection and Management.

The provision currently allows land clearing by burning up to two hectares per household, strictly based on local wisdom.

"We will remove the clause permitting land clearing by burning up to two hectares, as that serves as the starting point," he stressed at the Prasasti Indonesia Policy Forum 2026.

In addition to revising the provision, the government plans to tighten regulations governing concession areas.

Areas within concessions that are burned before commercial planting will be barred from being replanted with plantation crops, including oil palm. The measure is intended to prevent deliberate burning to clear land for new plantations.

Jumhur said the government would impose strict sanctions if intentional burning were found to have occurred in concession areas.

Regarding offers of assistance from other countries to combat the fires, he said the government would assess potential aid based on its type and effectiveness in accelerating firefighting operations on the ground.

He said small deployments of personnel might have limited impact, given that Indonesia had already deployed tens of thousands of responders. The same applies to assistance involving water-bombing aircraft, which must be evaluated based on operational needs and effectiveness.

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