Karhutla In Indonesia Reaches 994 Thousand Hectares Until October 2023

Manggala agni officers are trying to extinguish the fire that burned peatlands in Jungkal Village, Pampangan District, Ogan Komering Ilir Regency, South Sumatra. (ANTARA/HO-Ministry of LHK)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) noted that the area of forest and land fires (karhutla) in Indonesia had reached 994,313 hectares during the period January to October 2023.

"The area that (many) burned was an open area, so it had to be researched and a solution had to be found because the open area meant that it wanted to be used by the community," said LHK Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, November 15.

Of the total 994,313 hectares of forest and burned land, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry noted that the forest area burned was only 66,287 hectares or the equivalent of 7 percent. Meanwhile, non-forest areas that experienced fires were recorded at 928,025 hectares or the equivalent of 93 percent.

The province with the most widely burned non-forest areas is South Kalimantan reaching 186,186 hectares, Central Kalimantan 112,917 hectares, South Sumatra 106,628 hectares, South Papua 97,555 hectares, and West Kalimantan reaching 99,121 hectares.

The provinces with the widest burned forest areas are East Java with 26,326 hectares, East Nusa Tenggara with 10,461 hectares, South Papua with 4,459 hectares, Central Java with 4,300 hectares, South Sumatra with 2,832 hectares, and East Kalimantan with 2,509 hectares.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry also noted that the most frequent fires occurred in non-gambutt soil with an area of 839,883 hectares and peat only amounted to 154,429 hectares.

"In 2015, the area of peat burned was 34 percent, so in 2023 the peat burned was only 16 percent," said Minister Siti.

The areas with the highest non-gambutt fire area occupied by South Kalimantan were 180,113 hectares, East Nusa Tenggara 99,047 hectares, South Papua 97,813 hectares, and Central Kalimantan 65,924 hectares.

Meanwhile, the areas experiencing the most extensive peat fires were Central Kalimantan with 48,651 hectares, South Sumatra with 48,594 hectares, West Kalimantan with 31,427 hectares, South Kalimantan with 7,460 hectares, and East Kalimantan with 6,107 hectares.

Minister Siti revealed that the current forest and land fires in Indonesia are much smaller than other countries, such as Canada, which reached an area of 18.5 million hectares, Brazil 3.6 million hectares, the United States 2.4 million hectares, and Siberia as much as 1.2 million hectares.

"Indonesia 900 thousand hectares more, but my estimate is to reach 1 million hectares because the data only entered until the end of October," he concluded.