Wildfires affected nearly 95,000 hectares of land in Indonesia in July, almost doubling the area burned during the previous six months as the El Niño weather pattern intensified.
Forestry Ministry data showed that about 202,004 hectares had been affected by fires between January and July, compared with 107,465 hectares through June.
Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni told parliament that El Niño conditions had become stronger by mid August than during 2015, when Indonesia experienced one of its worst fire seasons. However, the area affected this year remains well below the roughly 600,000 hectares recorded during the same period in 2015.
Antoni said the damage has already exceeded levels recorded in 2019 and 2023, prompting authorities to intensify efforts to contain the fires. Weather modification operations were conducted in several fire prone provinces between February and July.
Indonesia’s weather agency expects El Niño conditions to persist into early 2027, with August and September forecast to be the peak period for forest and land fires.
Authorities are also preparing to reopen Bromo National Park on Java island after containing fires that affected more than 1,100 hectares of the popular tourist destination.
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