Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto has called for tougher laws and sanctions against people and companies responsible for forest and land fires, describing deliberate slash-and-burn clearing as “ecological terrorism” as the country battles its worst wildfire season in 11 years.
Prabowo, who chaired a limited meeting on disaster management on Wednesday, said there should be zero tolerance for individuals or corporations found responsible for starting fires.
He asked the state secretary and the minister of law to review existing legal sanctions and consider strengthening them. He also suggested that the House of Representatives consider classifying such offences as “ecological terrorism”.
Indonesian police have launched 219 criminal investigations linked to the fires, with 162 people named as suspects, police official Mohammad Irhamni said on Thursday.
Police are also investigating 95 companies, although Irhamni did not specify how many of them are suspected of criminal offences.
Prabowo has also instructed regional governments to immediately remove exemptions that allow smallholders to use fire to clear small plots of land.
He directed police to pursue criminal investigations against corporations found to have violated fire-safety rules.
The push for tougher enforcement comes after Indonesian authorities had already begun investigating suspected deliberate fires. Police said earlier this month that most suspects in several cases were individuals who had burned vegetation on their own land for clearing.
Why are Indonesia’s fires so severe?
Indonesia is experiencing an unusually intense fire season as a powerful El Niño pattern has brought hotter and drier conditions.
The country's meteorological agency has warned that El Niño could produce a longer and drier dry season, increasing the risk of forest and land fires. The peak of the dry season was expected between July and September.
The islands of Borneo and Sumatra have been among the worst affected. Thick smoke has blanketed parts of Borneo, severely reducing visibility and disrupting daily life, while authorities have reported a sharp increase in respiratory illnesses.
More than 12.5 million people across seven provinces have been exposed to hazardous haze, according to recent reporting, while respiratory cases linked to the fires more than doubled in early September.
The smoke has also crossed Indonesia's borders, affecting air quality in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore.
Government data showed that about 202,004 hectares of land had been affected by fires between January and July.
The Forestry Ministry said about 57% of that area was within forest zones and 43% in other areas.
Environmental group YKAN has estimated that another 600,000 hectares were affected by fire in August, bringing the scale of the damage to roughly 800,000 hectares when the government and group estimates are combined. Reuters reported that the August figure was an estimate from the environmental group, rather than government data.
The scale of the fires remains below the catastrophic levels seen during Indonesia's 2015 fire crisis, but authorities have warned that the current season is becoming increasingly severe. The Forestry Ministry has said the intensity of the current El Niño has surpassed 2015 levels, although the area affected by fires was still lower than in that year at the time of the comparison.
Facts Only
* Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto called for tougher laws and sanctions against those responsible for forest and land fires.
* Deliberate slash-and-burn clearing was described as "ecological terrorism."
* The fire season is the worst in 11 years.
* Prabowo requested a review and strengthening of existing legal sanctions by the state secretary and the minister of law.
* He suggested classifying such offenses as "ecological terrorism" in the House of Representatives.
* Indonesian police launched 219 criminal investigations linked to the fires, naming 162 suspects.
* Police are also investigating 95 companies related to the fires.
* Regional governments were directed to immediately remove exemptions allowing smallholders to use fire for clearing small plots of land.
* Police were instructed to pursue criminal investigations against corporations violating fire-safety rules.
* The intense fire season is linked to a powerful El Niño pattern causing hotter and drier conditions.
* The meteorological agency warned El Niño could produce a longer, drier dry season, increasing fire risk.
* Smoke affected Borneo and Sumatra, leading to increased respiratory illnesses for over 12.5 million people across seven provinces.
* Approximately 202,004 hectares of land were affected by fires between January and July.
* About 57% of the affected area was in forest zones and 43% in other areas.
* Environmental groups estimate that additional 600,000 hectares were affected in August, bringing the total damage estimate to roughly 800,000 hectares when combined with government estimates.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The narrative shifts from an immediate crisis response to a structural critique of governance and environmental accountability. The call for framing land clearing as "ecological terrorism" is an attempt to elevate the issue beyond simple criminality into a moral and systemic failure, shifting the burden of responsibility from individual actors to corporate and state structures that permit these practices. This mirrors patterns seen in how large-scale environmental disasters are managed, where immediate public health crises often obscure the underlying systemic economic incentives driving resource exploitation.
The focus on the El Niño cycle provides an environmental context but risks becoming a distraction if not tied to long-term policy shifts. The simultaneous pressure from the government to pursue criminal investigations and the call for stricter legal frameworks suggests a tension between reactive enforcement (punishing current fires) and proactive systemic change (changing land tenure and economic drivers). The fact that police investigations initially pointed toward smallholders burning on their own land suggests a gap in enforcement targeting corporate or larger-scale organized destruction, hinting at a potential reluctance to assign blame higher up the chain of command.
The disproportionate scale of the haze and health impacts across multiple nations emphasizes an interconnectedness that transcends national borders, suggesting that local environmental degradation initiates regional instability. The pattern is one where external climatic forces exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities in land management practices. A key implication for cognitive sovereignty is recognizing that resilience requires not just managing the fire but understanding the complex interplay between climate volatility, legal frameworks, and economic dependencies that fuel destructive behavior. What systemic levers are being ignored when focusing narrowly on criminal prosecution? How can accountability be structured to address deep-seated historical patterns of resource access rather than merely punishing surface-level acts?
Sentinel — Human
This text reads like a standard, fact-based news report synthesizing official statements, investigative details, and environmental context concerning Indonesian wildfires.