Indonesia Urged to Declare Forest Fire Emergency

Indonesia Urged to Declare Forest Fire Emergency

Reporter

September 1, 2026 | 07:37 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Puan Maharani is urging the government to declare ongoing forest and land fires an Extraordinary Event (KLB).

Puan stated that the House has asked the government to coordinate across ministries and agencies, not only to contain the blazes, but also to anticipate health and education impacts while managing post-disaster recovery.

“We will request cross-sectoral coordination after the fire handling. Within the commissions, we will also handle post-fire issues,” Puan told reporters after a plenary session at the DPR complex in Jakarta on Tuesday, September 1, 2026.

According to Puan, tackling forest fires cannot be accomplished alone and demands a unified effort. She added that DPR leadership will convene a coordination meeting to ensure mitigation involves relevant ministries and house commissions. “Therefore, within the DPR, it will involve multiple commissions, and within the government, it must span multiple ministries,” she said.

Previously, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reported a surge in forest and land fire hotspots across three provinces in Kalimantan: West, Central, and South Kalimantan on Monday, August 31, 2026.

“There was a significant increase in West Kalimantan. In South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan, it has relatively decreased,” BNPB Disaster Data, Information, and Communication Center Acting Head Berton S.P. Panjaitan stated in Jakarta on Monday, August 31, 2026, as quoted from BNPB Indonesia’s YouTube channel.

Berton revealed that hotspot monitoring across these three provinces indicated an increase in fire locations, with visibility dropping to between one and two kilometers. Meanwhile, across three provinces in Sumatra, namely Riau, South Sumatra, and Jambi, hotspot numbers have generally subsided.

However, BNPB recorded a sharp rise in South Sumatra, where hotspots jumped by 209 points to reach 1,013. Conversely, hotspots in Riau and Jambi saw a marked decline. “Visibility ranges between four and five kilometers in Riau and South Sumatra, while Jambi stands at around seven kilometers,” he noted.

Berton added that these conditions directly affect air quality, which is monitored via the Ministry of Environment’s Air Pollution Standard Index (ISPU).

Read: BPBD: Sumedang Records the Most Forest Fires in West Java

Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News