Environment Minister Aims to Extinguish Forest and Land Fires Within a Month
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Environment Minister and Head of the Environmental Control Agency Jumhur Hidayat is aiming for forest and land fires to be extinguished within the next month.
He is optimistic the target can be met as joint personnel are deployed to put out hotspots in several areas.
“After speaking with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), it looks like it will take a few weeks. But perhaps the intensity will already have started to decline. It should not take as long as a month to extinguish them,” he said at the Prasasti Indonesia Policy Forum 2026 in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Firefighting efforts are nevertheless facing several obstacles, including limited water supplies and operational constraints on aerial water-bombing aircraft.
To prevent fires from recurring, the government has therefore initiated a revision to Article 69(2) of Law No. 32 of 2009 on Environmental Protection and Management.
The provision currently exempts land clearing by burning, up to a maximum of two hectares per household, when carried out in accordance with local wisdom.
“We will remove the article that allows fields to be burned to clear up to two hectares of land. That is the entry point,” he stressed.
In addition to revising the provision, the government plans to tighten regulations in concession areas.
Concession land that burns before being planted with industrial crops will be barred from being replanted with plantation commodities, including oil palm.
The policy is intended to deter the deliberate burning of land to establish new plantations.
Jumhur said the government would impose strict sanctions if deliberate action were found to have caused fires in concession areas.
As for offers of assistance from friendly countries to tackle the fires, the government will assess them according to their type and effectiveness in accelerating firefighting on the ground.
He said a small number of personnel might not make a significant difference, given that Indonesia has already deployed tens of thousands of personnel.
The same applies to offers of water-bombing aircraft, which must be assessed against operational needs and effectiveness.
“Assistance must first be assessed for what it offers and whether it will make a significant difference. Rather than risk getting it wrong, it is better to vet it first and make sure it is appropriate,” he said.