Minister of LH: Forest Fire Area Reaches 52 Thousand Hectare

PEKANBARU - The Minister of Environment of the Republic of Indonesia Hanif Faisol Nurofiq revealed that the area of forest and land fires nationwide during 2026 has reached 52 thousand hectares or has been dozens of times larger than last year.

Hanif after the fire control appeal at the PT Pertamina Hulu Rokan Field said that this fire was quite large and spread mainly in Riau and West Kalimantan provinces.

"Based on the data of SiPongi (Forest and Land Fire Early Warning and Detection Information System), two or three days ago it was 52 thousand hectares. This figure is also many times compared to the same year in 2025," he said as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, April 25.

The Minister of LH asked to activate all elements down to the grassroots level to tackle karhutla. Next week he will shift to West Kalimantan to check the readiness of the provincial government as well as districts and cities there.

According to him, this year's fire was caused by a long dry season and low peat water. His party did it by way of weather modification operations by the National Disaster Management Agency and the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency and the second by increasing the canal barriers.

The expanse of Karhutla 2026, he continued, indicates that readiness from the beginning is indeed very required. Therefore, he asked disaster-prone areas to remind each other and provide support and enthusiasm to present a good environment.

"To the TNI Polri, it is hoped that it will be able to continue to train us to jointly pay attention to and plan operational steps in the integration of forest and land fire control. To friends from the regional disaster management agencies and all elements of the regional government organization, to work together. This fire is our shared responsibility, without us carrying out joint handling operations," he said.

Moreover, to carry out countermeasures in the midst of uncertain geopolitics marked by the swelling of fuel prices will certainly have a direct implication on the operational level. Therefore, mutual cooperation is very important in handling early for cost efficiency.

"We can't imagine if there is a fire and we are not ready, of course the cost of extinguishing it will be very high in the midst of increasingly high fuel prices in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical condition like this. To make all steps more efficient, what we need to do is prepare early, the better we do it, the more efficient the budget," he said.