Samarinda, October 25, 2026 – Exactly ten years since Indonesia enacted Law No. 16 of 2016 on the Ratification of the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kalimantan is once again blanketed by haze from forest and land fires (karhutla). The PWYP Indonesia Regional Kalimantan Coalition considers these recurring fires to be more than just a consequence of the dry season. They reflect systemic failures in land governance, permit oversight, and law enforcement, serving as a real test of the government’s climate commitments.
This issue was highlighted during an online media discussion titled “A Decade of the Paris Agreement: Demanding Responsibility for Karhutla, Evaluating Government Performance, and Climate Commitments in Kalimantan” on Sunday (25/10/2026). The event featured Arniyati (Manager of the Training & Learning Center at Gemawan), Buyung Marajo (Coordinator of Pokja 30 East Kalimantan), Among (Director of Perkumpulan PADI East Kalimantan), and Fathur Roziqin Fen (Regional Executive Director of WALHI East Kalimantan), moderated by Ageng from Gemawan.
“Emission reduction targets will mean little as achievements if fires continue to recur, oversight remains ineffective, violations are not consistently sanctioned, and the public continues to be exposed to smoke without adequate protection,” said Ageng when opening the discussion.
West Kalimantan: Fires in Concessions, Burden on Citizens
Arniyati presented the situation in West Kalimantan, where the air quality index in Pontianak in recent days has hovered between 400 and 500. Since July, approximately 40,000 hectares of land have burned across the province, with hotspots concentrated in Ketapang and Kayong Utara Regencies. According to Gemawan’s data, more than 70 percent of the fires occurred within concession areas, including inactive HGU (Right to Cultivate) lands. A study by CELIOS estimates monthly economic losses in West Kalimantan at approximately IDR 5.4–5.6 trillion, nearly matching the province’s entire annual budget (APBD).
“When fires keep recurring, we need to ask not just who is putting out the flames, but who failed to prevent them, who benefits from today’s land governance, and who must be held responsible for bearing the losses,” Arniyati stated.
She highlighted the hidden costs never accounted for by the state—from purchasing face masks and accessing health checks available at only a few points, to mobile internet costs for children forced to study from home. “The public cannot constantly be asked to be resilient and adapt. Children here now say there are three seasons: the dry season, the rainy season, and the haze season,” she added.
Arniyati also pointed to cuts in village funds under the guise of efficiency, which left Fire Care Communities (Masyarakat Peduli Api/MPA)—the front line of village-level prevention—without operational support.
Gemawan outlined key critiques of karhutla governance:
- Prevention must be proven through measurable results, not just banners prohibiting land burning;
- Oversight must target structures of land tenure and management;
- Every fire incident must be followed by clear inspections, evaluations, and investigations into alleged violations;
- Peatland ecosystem restoration must be integrated into core policy;
- The impacts borne by communities must be calculated and fully remediated.
Gemawan also urged that karhutla risk maps serve as the baseline for planning and regional budgets (APBD), calling for a public dashboard integrating data on hotspots, burned areas, peatlands, HGU/concessions, air quality, and law enforcement progress.
East Kalimantan: Compound Crises and 172 Companies
Buyung Marajo noted that East Kalimantan faces overlapping crises: pressure from extractive industries (coal, oil and gas, palm oil, and forestry), tightening regional fiscal space and budget cuts, fuel shortages, and now haze. Citing data from the People’s Safety Advocacy Team, he mentioned that around 16,865 hectares of land burned in East Kalimantan throughout 2026. A total of 69 percent of this area—approximately 11,600 hectares—was located within the concessions of 172 companies.
Data from the East Kalimantan Health Office recorded more than 228,000 cases of Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI/ISPA) across nine regencies and cities, with the highest numbers in Samarinda and Kutai Kartanegara. However, Buyung cautioned that ARI figures must be interpreted carefully due to varied causes, though the surge coincided directly with worsening air quality from land fires.
“Addressing this crisis requires more than extinguishing fires, distributing food packages, or handing out masks. What is required is policy alignment that prioritizes public safety through prevention, transparency, and law enforcement,” he asserted.
According to Buyung, the root issue lies in rent-seeking governance. “In the extractive sector, there are always four ‘C’s: corruption, destruction (kerusakan), conflict, and criminalization,” he remarked. Pokja 30 urged the government to guarantee funding for basic services (education, healthcare, clean water, sanitation, and social protection) for affected residents and vulnerable groups. Pokja 30 also demanded measurable healthcare responses to haze exposure, public access to karhutla data and company lists in burned areas, environmental audits of burned concessions, and transparency in disaster-response budgets.
Do Not Scapegoat Indigenous Peoples
Among rejected narratives framing traditional farmers and Indigenous Peoples as the primary culprits behind karhutla. He explained that traditional farming practices among Indigenous Peoples are executed with immense care and ritual—ranging from land preparation and reading wind directions to controlled burning within restricted areas. “Current regulations only serve as a red carpet for corporate interests and capitalists,” he said.
Among also offered self-criticism, stating that the civil society movement should not ignore instances where land burning is carried out under the guise of local communities. Arniyati added that farmers who burn land often do so out of economic necessity when the market predominantly absorbs palm oil commodities. Therefore, the issue must be analyzed structurally rather than by blaming ordinary citizens.
PADI, together with several partner organizations, is currently pushing for recognized Indigenous territories in East Kalimantan to be formally integrated into the provincial Spatial Plan (RTRW).
Commitments on Paper, Imbalanced Authority
Fathur Roziqin Fen noted that karhutla reflects political choices in development strategy. Ten years after the Paris Agreement, he observed that progress has largely been limited to documents and international diplomacy. “From the Paris Agreement and updated NDCs to FOLU Net Sink 2030, in 2026 it all feels practically meaningless,” he said.
He underscored the imbalance of authority. In East Kalimantan, Forest Utilization Business License (PBPH) areas—which fall under central government jurisdiction—accounted for the highest number of hotspots and largest burned areas. Yet the burden of firefighting and its costs fall squarely on local governments.
Fathur emphasized that firefighting and policy correction are two different matters. “We consistently challenge the state to place public safety and ecosystems above extractive interests,” he said. He called on the public and media to shift their focus from merely tracking hotspot counts and burned acreage to asking who controls these territories, who the beneficial owners are, who finances them, and who buys their products. He also noted that karhutla litigation since 2015 has failed to reach corporate owners, highlighting the need for new climate litigation strategies, including transboundary legal action.
Demands of the PWYP Indonesia Regional Kalimantan Coalition
The civil society coalition urges the central government, provincial and regency/city governments, the national parliament (DPR RI), regional parliaments (DPRD), and law enforcement agencies to:
- Shift the approach from emergency response to landscape-based prevention, using karhutla risk maps as the foundation for planning and budgeting.
- Verify and follow up on every hotspot in concession areas, and publicly disclose land status, license holders, inspection findings, and legal or administrative actions taken.
- Disclose and integrate data on karhutla, permits, and concessions, including beneficial ownership (BO) information of companies holding burned concessions.
- Conduct environmental audits and compliance evaluations of companies with fires in their concessions, enforce laws up to the level of ultimate beneficial owners, and ensure legal rulings are fully executed.
- Guarantee protection for affected citizens: targeted medical care for haze exposure, unslashed basic service budgets, and dedicated support for Fire Care Communities (MPA) and villages.
- Disclose disaster response budgets for public scrutiny.
- Recognize and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including in spatial planning, and stop the stigmatization and criminalization of traditional farmers.
- Demonstrate true commitment to the Paris Agreement, NDCs, and FOLU Net Sink 2030 through concrete decisions on licensing, spatial planning, and oversight, rather than paper targets.
Media Contacts:
- Arniyati, Gemawan West Kalimantan – arniyanti@gemawan.org
- Buyung Marajo, Pokja 30 East Kalimantan – buyung@tenggarong.com
- Among, PADI East Kalimantan – amonglumut@padi.or.id