Hanin Marwah, Jakarta – The Kalimantan office of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) urged the Indonesian police to publicly announce the identity of 20 corporations named as suspects in forest fire cases.
While designating corporations as suspects is a good step, the environment watchdog said it would "cowardly" if the process is not transparent. "The public has the right to know which corporations are involved and where they operate," said WALHI Central Kalimantan Executive Director Janang Firman Palanungkai in a statement on Saturday, October 31, 2026.
Police earlier named 20 corporations as suspects behind forest fire cases across several Indonesian regions, based on 104 police reports with a total of 29,168.78 hectares of land burned thus far.
Janang emphasized that suspect designation must not stop at mere claim of success without clarity on the legal identities of the firms.
Janang also highlighted the disparity in legal treatment between traditional farmers and corporations. Authorities often act swiftly while dealing with small farmers, identifying the suspects clearly.
Earlier, two crop workers were criminalized and were forced to face the public during a press conference, Janang said. He then wondered whether the police would be as courageous to present company executives behind forest fires the same way. "The police must not be firm only to small farmers but weak towards corporations," he said.
The Kalimantan office of WALHI also urged the National Police to provide detailed information about the parent business groups up to the final beneficiaries of these 20 corporations. "This fact confirms that the forest fires are not the fault of the regular people, traditional farmers, or indigenous communities," he said.
WALHI also demanded authorities publish the 23 companies previously advised for the licenses to be revoked due to the repeated burning of over 500 hectares of land. According to Janang, the public, especially the people in Kalimantan, have the right to know who has poisoned the air and destroyed their living spaces for the past four months.
WALHI called on authorities to ensure crackdowns on intellectual actors, board of directors, and commissioners who are responsible for corporate policies in the companies responsible for forest fires. "Criminal punishments must not stop at field managers," he said.
WALHI West Kalimantan Executive Director Sri Hartini referred to forest fire and toxic smoke as environmental and transnational crimes. The state must not bow to corporations, Sri said.
Of the 97 corporations under investigation, 22 are foreign investments affiliated with investors from Malaysia and Singapore.
Beyond prosecuting foreign corporations proven to have intentionally burned their concession lands and caused forest firest, WALHI called on the police, the Ministry of Forestry, and the Ministry of Environment to freeze their operations and revoke their business licenses.
"Without heavy administrative sanctions and obligations for peatland ecosystem recovery, this legal process will just become an annual ritual without a deterrent effect," said Sri.
Forest fires have devastated tens of thousands of hectares of land across Indonesia, It is a clear testament to the country's fragility of the peat ecosystem protection system and the failure of spatial and forest area governance. Sri said corporations repeatedly violate regulations in the same concession areas because there are no sanctions that effectively kill their malicious business activities.
Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/2122774/why-walhi-urges-police-to-expose-20-firms-behind-forest-fire