Driven by El Niño and illegal land clearing, the blazes have burned over 895,657 hectares, causing respiratory illnesses to double in some provinces.
The air in parts of Kalimantan has turned a thick, sepia tone, obscuring cities and forcing schoolchildren to wear masks at their desks. In Sampit, Central Kalimantan, the air quality index (AQI) hit 1142 on 10 September, far exceeding the hazardous threshold of 300. For residents, the experience is visceral; one local described the act of breathing as smoking a cigarette
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The Peatland “Apex Predator” and El Niño
While fires occur annually, this year’s intensity is linked to a combination of human activity and extreme weather. The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry attributes the surge to dry weather caused by El Niño and human-induced fires. The U.S.
The most destructive blazes are occurring on drained peatlands. David Gaveau, a landscape ecologist who runs Nusantara Atlas, explains that these fires are a legacy of 50 years of deforestation and degradation. Because they can burn underground for weeks, they are notoriously difficult to extinguish.
“They go underground, they resurface somewhere else. And then the more water you give it, ...