The Emerald of the Equator is Vulnerable to Disaster

JAKARTA - Indonesia has long been known as the Emerald of the Equator. The beauty of the landscape, the diversity of culture to the typical Indonesian food makes Indonesia like a paradise that must be visited. Unfortunately, behind the beauty, Indonesia is also known as a country prone to disasters, ranging from disasters with local status to national ones.

Based on the official document of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) "Guidelines for Determining the Status of Emergency Disaster", which refers to Law No. 24 of 2007 concerning Disaster Management, the national disaster status is one of the levels in the status of emergency disaster in Indonesia.

In general, there are three levels of emergency disaster status, namely Regency / City Disaster, Provincial Disaster and National Disaster. A disaster can be designated as a national disaster if the affected provincial government is considered unable to meet one or more capabilities such as mobilizing human resources for emergency disaster handling efforts, activating the command system for handling emergency disasters, implementing initial disaster handling such as rescue, evacuation of threatened residents, and meeting the basic needs of victims.

At the end of November 2025, several provinces in Sumatra, ranging from Aceh, North Sumatra, to West Sumatra were hit by flash floods. BNPB data as of December 29, 2025 at 00.10 WIB, 1,140 people died, 163 were missing and more than three thousand people had to stay in evacuation centers. The Sumatra disaster also damaged 215 health facilities, 3,188 educational facilities, 806 houses of worship, 97 bridges and 99 roads.

BNPB itself recorded that from January 1 to December 17, 2025, there were 3,116 disasters in various regions of Indonesia, where almost all disasters that occurred throughout 2025 were dominated by hydrometeorological disasters, such as floods, extreme weather, and forest and land fires. Of the total 3,116 disaster events, about 99 percent were hydrometeorological disasters, while the rest were geological disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis.

Flooding is the type of disaster that occurs most frequently with 1,584 incidents, extreme weather with 673 incidents, and forest and land fires (karhutla) with 546 incidents. Meanwhile, landslides were recorded as many as 225 incidents, while drought occurred 36 times. For geological disasters, 23 earthquakes, 7 volcanic eruptions, and 1 tsunami were recorded throughout 2025.

Meanwhile, in 2024, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) revealed that flooding was the type of disaster that occurred most in Indonesia, reaching 40.9 percent of the total number of disasters. In some areas, the frequency of floods has increased by 30 percent in the last 2 decades, causing economic losses to rise to 40 percent.

Apart from floods, 28.02 percent of disasters in Indonesia in 2024 are forest and land fires (karhutla). Furthermore, 21.11 percent of disasters in 2024 are extreme weather. This extreme weather is in the form of an unexpected, unusual, bad, and out-of-season weather type, which causes both human and material losses. Meanwhile, 5.96 percent of disaster events are landslides and the remaining 4 percent are other disasters.

Natural Factors Are One of the Main Causes of Disasters

But in fact, what is the cause of Indonesia's frequent natural disasters? UGM Environmental Geology and Disaster Mitigation Expert, Dwikorita Karnawati, explained that natural factors are one of the main causes.

1. Indonesia is in the Meeting of 3 Active Tectonic Plates

Geographically, Indonesia is located at the meeting of 3 active tectonic plates in the world, namely the Indo-Australian Plate, the Pacific Plate, and the Eurasian Plate. This meeting then causes the emergence of more than 70 active faults and dozens of unstable and constantly moving zones (subduction) so that at a certain point it causes earthquakes.

In general, there are several faults or faults that are known to be active and very dangerous in Indonesia, including the Sumatra Fault, the Mentawai Fault, the Lembang Fault, and the Palu Kuro Fault. In addition, because the meeting point of the three tectonic plates is located in the sea, when a large earthquake with a shallow depth occurs, it has the potential to cause a tsunami.

2. Indonesia is passed by the Alpide Belt

The Alpide Belt is a mountain range that stretches along the southern boundary of the Eurasian Plate passing through Indonesia, specifically the islands of Java and Sumatra, which then continue to the Himalayas, Mediterranean, and Atlantic.

The Alpide Belt, which is also a seismic and orogenic belt, is often known as the second most active earthquake belt in the world. So it's no wonder that Indonesia, especially Java and Sumatra islands, which are crossed by this belt, are often hit by earthquakes.

3. Indonesia in the Pacific Ring of Fire

The fire ring is a path that has at least 75 percent of the world's volcanoes. This path stretches 40,000 km from the west coast of South America, then leads to North America, Canada, Kamtschatka Peninsula, Japan, then Indonesia. This indirectly indicates that Indonesia is one of the countries with the most volcanoes in the world. Indonesia has as many as 127 active volcanoes. This condition ultimately causes Indonesia to often experience eruptions and earthquakes caused by volcanic activity from volcanoes.

4. Indonesia has a tropical climate

In addition to the three causes mentioned earlier, it turns out that Indonesia's astronomical position also has an influence on the disaster factor. Indonesia, which is astronomically located between the coordinates of 60 LU-110 LS, causes this tropical emerald country to have a tropical climate.

This climate does not immediately have a positive impact on Indonesia, but also has an impact on the emergence of certain disasters. The characteristics of Indonesian geology coupled with the tropical climate can increase the chances of flooding and landslides, storms, and tropical cyclones.

5. Indonesia Has High Rainfall

High rainfall is also a factor why Indonesia is prone to natural disasters. Indonesia has a fairly high annual rainfall of around 1,000 to 4,000. It is the excessive rainfall that causes some areas in Indonesia to be prone to natural disasters such as floods and landslides.

The Forgotten Anthropogenic Disaster

In addition to natural factors, Unair Professor Mohammad Adib revealed that the frequent disasters in Indonesia are inseparable from ecological injustice. Because, what has been called 'natural disasters' is actually triggered by human activities or in scientific language known as anthropogenic disasters. According to him, the community needs to change the way they interpret disasters. Floods, landslides, to extreme droughts are not the result of an 'angry' nature, but the result of the way humans treat their living space.

"Rain is a natural cycle, but flooding is evidence of the failure of our social and cultural systems in responding to the cycle. This shows that we have exceeded the carrying capacity. Nature is not angry, it is only responding to the physical pressure we give it," said Adib.

He highlighted the governance crisis of space which is an important part of the current problem. The reason is that development often only favors the short-term interests of humans, while the ecological rights of nature are ignored. Spaces that should be places where the earth 'breathes' such as water catchment areas, river banks, and urban forests are slowly turning into developed areas.

"Ironically, the impact of this damage is often not felt by policymakers, but by small communities that are marginalized to disaster-prone areas. This is a form of ecological injustice," he added.

In addition, changes in cultural values also widen the distance between humans and nature. If traditional communities used to see nature as a partner in life - which gave birth to wisdom such as pamali and forbidden forests - then the modern lifestyle encourages humans to see nature only as an object of exploitation.

"The root of all this is an ontological shift or the way modern humans view nature. The consumerist culture makes us continue to tap into resources without giving time for nature to recover," said Adib.

He emphasized that disaster mitigation is not enough to rely on physical development. There needs to be a more fundamental change in outlook, including an ecological mental revolution to restore environmental awareness ethics and revive local values in modern urban planning policies.

In addition, the state as a regulator has a great responsibility in directing development that is more adaptive to the environment. Unfortunately, until now Adib admitted that he had not seen a clear and long-term environmental development roadmap. As a result, policies in various sectors run sporadically without a clear direction. "Without a clear direction from the government, efforts to maintain environmental balance will only move in place," he continued.

He stated that disasters are not immutable fate. Disasters are social products of lifestyles and policies that go beyond the limits of ecological carrying capacity. "We must move from an exploitative relationship to an adaptive relationship that respects local wisdom as the best ecological defense. This is a call from cultural values," he concluded.