Prabowo Wants to Know Who Owns Corporations Involved in Forest Fires: This Has Gone Too Far!

Jakarta, VIVA – President Prabowo Subianto has asked the Indonesian National Police (Polri) to take firm action against all parties causing forest and land fires (karhutla) in a number of regions.

Prabowo ordered that law enforcement be carried out all the way to the corporations involved in the fires, as karhutla causes great harm to the public and damages the environment.

He made the remarks to Police Chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo during a Limited Meeting on Natural Disaster Management at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Monday, 7 September 2026.

“Keep investigating, and I want the names of those corporations sent to me immediately. If necessary, we revoke everything straight away. We revoke all their permits, their land use rights (HGU) and so on. This has gone too far, and I truly want to know who actually owns these corporations,” Prabowo said.

Prabowo was furious because some forests had been converted into plantations shortly after burning.

“Right after the fire, the land immediately became a plantation in a very short time. So this is clearly deliberate, and is it the people or is it corporations?” he said.

During the meeting, Prabowo also asked the Police Chief to report on the progress of law enforcement carried out by Polri regarding karhutla. “Chief, how many individuals in total have been arrested for burning forests?” Prabowo asked.

Listyo reported that from 1 January to 6 September 2026, Polri had handled 200 police reports related to karhutla. A total of 138 people have been named suspects for causing fires across 8,637.35 hectares. In addition, eight corporations are undergoing legal proceedings.

“There are 200 police reports currently being processed. There are 138 suspects. Then there are 8 corporations we are processing. We are also conducting further investigations into 18 companies, and 42 companies are currently facing administrative sanctions, permit suspensions or revocations. If they are indeed found to have committed criminal acts, then we will process them,” Listyo affirmed.

He stated that law enforcement would continue as part of efforts to handle forest and land fires.

“So these figures (case handling) will keep moving, Mr President, they will increase, in line with the teams that are continuously working in the field,” he said.