Volunteers Battle Indonesia's Peat Fires as Haze Spreads

Experts blame a so-called "super El Niño", which has intensified drought, and decades of land-use change. Peat is a thick, spongy soil of partly decayed plants and wood that builds up over thousands of years in swamps, where waterlogged conditions slow decomposition. Because peat stores ancient carbon, sometimes in layers more than 20 metres deep, burning peatlands act as "carbon bombs", releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases. Yet large parts of Kalimantan's 4.5-million-hectare peatland have been drained for logging and plantations, including palm oil, turning it into fuel; the region lost almost 160,000 hectares of forest in 2025 alone. A Dayak representative told the BBC that Indigenous farmers, who traditionally use controlled burns, are unfairly blamed. Police have arrested 72 people suspected of starting fires in Borneo and Sumatra, most accused of burning land to clear it for plantations.

Across the region, from Indonesia to Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, air pollution has in some cases reached almost 75 times the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and hospital admissions have surged. Indonesia's Health Ministry recorded more than 50,000 respiratory infections linked to the fires in July and August, over 12,000 of them in children under five. Two volunteers in Central Kalimantan have died, reportedly after their health deteriorated while fighting the fires. Peat fires are stubborn: crews must soak the soil until it becomes "like porridge", yet flames often reappear. Nine orangutans have been evacuated in West Kalimantan. President Prabowo Subianto has promised helicopters and water pumps, but rain heavy enough to extinguish the fires is not forecast until November.