Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Satellite imagery recorded more than 5,000 fire hotspots on peatlands across Indonesia in January, despite the fact that much of the country remains firmly in the grip of the rainy season.
Independent watchdog Pantau Gambut identified 5,490 hotspots within peatlands, perennially waterlogged ecosystems that store massive amounts of carbon dioxide.
Official monitoring also recorded an increase in fire hotspots, though using a different reporting method. Based on NASA Terra/Aqua satellite data, the Ministry of Forestry reported 110 hotspots nationwide in January 2026, up from 29 in January 2025 and 18 in December 2025.
The two figures aren't directly comparable, as they rely on different spatial filters and detection criteria.
Pantau Gambut said the rise it recorded is concerning because it's occurring during the wet season, which has been so intense this time around that it led to massive flooding in Sumatra in late 2025.
The spike suggests fire risk in peat landscapes is no longer confined to the traditional dry season, but increasingly driven by degraded hydrology and land-use pressures, said Pantau Gambut campaigner Putra Saptian.
Peat soil, which can be several meters deep, is made up of dead vegetation that, thanks to the waterlogged conditions, is only partially decomposed. In peat-rich areas across Sumatra and Borneo, logging and plantation companies have typically dug canals to drain the peat soil in preparation for cultivation, leaving behind vast swaths of highly flammable organic matter.
Pantau Gambut recorded 1,824 hotspots inside the concessions of such companies in January, or a third of the total hotspots. These included 1,617 hotspots within oil palm concessions. The findings, the group said, reinforce evidence that peat drainage and clearing for monoculture plantations remain the major contributors to recurring fires.
"The series of ecological disasters caused by damaged peat ecosystems must be read as a single, serious ecological warning," Putra said in a press release.
Wet season, dry peat
The fires have intensified in provinces such as West Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo. Indonesia's meteorological agency, the BMKG, recorded up to 11 consecutive days without rain in parts of West Kalimantan in mid-January, alongside weakening rainfall and relatively high temperatures. While such short dry spells may not trigger widespread burning on mineral soils, conditions differ on peatlands – particularly where drainage canals have lowered the water table.
In degraded peat systems, even a week without rain can dry out the surface layer enough for ignition. Once burning starts, peat fires smolder belowground, making them harder to detect and extinguish, and allow them to persist despite light rainfall. In such landscapes, fire risk is shaped less by calendar seasons than by short-term moisture deficits and water-table depth.
More than half of the hotspots Pantau Gambut identified – 3,266 – were located in protected peat ecosystems designated for conservation and research purposes.
West Kalimantan and Aceh, in Sumatra, were the hardest-hit provinces, with 2,216 and 1,444 hotspots respectively. Both provinces experienced major flooding in recent months. In late November 2025, a rare tropical typhoon, Senyar, brought intense rainfall to parts of Sumatra, including Aceh, triggering widespread floods that killed more than 1,200 people and displaced communities. In early January 2026, at least three districts in West Kalimantan were also hit by flooding.
Scientists have linked both fire and flood risks to peat degradation. Drainage and repeated burning cause peat to oxidize and subside, reducing its elevation and water retention capacity. As peatlands lose their ability to store water, they become more prone to flooding during heavy rainfall and more vulnerable to fire during dry spells.
A previous Pantau Gambut report found that nearly half of Indonesia's peatlands are vulnerable to flooding due to degradation, with about 6 million hectares (15 million acres) – an area one and a half times the size of Switzerland – classified as highly vulnerable.
Toxic haze
The current fires have produced thick haze in parts of Borneo. Pontianak, the provincial capital of West Kalimantan, has been blanketed by smoke since January, despite recording fewer hotspots than several surrounding districts. Local officials said prevailing winds and the city's geographic position mean smoke from fires outside its administrative boundary can accumulate over the city.
"As the region with the largest population in West Kalimantan, Pontianak is the area that most feels the impact of declining air quality," Mayor Edi Rusdi Kamtono said as quoted by local media.
The haze has already taken a toll. In Galang village in Mempawah district, a 67-year-old woman named Pusani died on Feb. 9 after suffering severe respiratory distress. Medical staff at the hospital in Pontianak where she was treated said she had underlying asthma that was aggravated by smoke that had blanketed the area since Feb. 8.
Studies have shown that peat smoke contains a complex mix of particulate matter and toxic gases, including formaldehyde, benzene, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, which are associated with respiratory and cardiovascular harm even at relatively low concentrations.
Restoration setback
Indonesia has made efforts to curb peat fires since the catastrophic fire season of 2015, when smoke spread across Southeast Asia and hundreds of thousands of people suffered acute respiratory infections. A study by researchers at Harvard and Columbia universities later estimated that exposure to the 2015 haze may have contributed to up to 100,000 premature deaths across the region.
In 2016, then-President Joko Widodo established a peat restoration agency tasked with restoring more than 2.6 million hectares (6.4 million acres) of degraded peatland to reduce fire risk. The agency, later expanded to include mangroves and renamed the BRGM, reported restoring about 1.6 million hectares (4 million acres) before its mandate ended in December 2024.
Pantau Gambut said that since the BRGM's dissolution, no institution has been specifically tasked with peat restoration. At the same time, the former Ministry of Environment and Forestry was split into separate environment and forestry ministries.
The separation, combined with uncertainty over which agency now serves as the focal point for peat protection, has fragmented coordination, Pantau Gambut said. Many peat ecosystems lie within forest areas, making cross-sector enforcement critical, it said.
Although the new Ministry of Environment established a peatland and mangrove management center in August 2025, Pantau Gambut said there's still limited clarity over the maintenance of restoration infrastructure built under the BRGM. Monitoring systems developed to track peat water levels and restoration progress have not been operating optimally, the group said.
"The absence of real-time monitoring and weak peat restoration signal a setback in ecosystem protection from fires," Pantau Gambut said, warning that the risk could intensify if El Nino conditions develop in 2027.
"Future policy directions must be able to reunify peat management across sectors, with a primary orientation toward environmental recovery, disaster prevention, and the protection of people's right to a healthy environment," Putra said.