Indonesia braces itself for wildfire, drought ahead of longer dry season
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Firefighters work to extinguish a wildfire burning on peatland in Rimba Panjang, Riau province, on July 20, 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
JAKARTA – Several wildfire-prone regions in Sumatra and Kalimantan have issued fire alerts as the weather agency predicts the dry season starting later in March will bring even less rainfall and drier weather that can lead to crop failures and increase the risk of severe drought.
The Central Kalimantan provincial administration declared on March 9 a 90-day wildfire alert, with its disaster mitigation agency strengthening surveillance and vigilance to mitigate fires in the heavily forested province.
Similar warnings have been issued for several regencies in North Sumatra and West Kalimantan after fire hot spots were detected in the past few days.
North Sumatra’s neighbouring province Riau had already issued a 10-month alert in mid-February following rising temperatures and less rainfall intensity that has seen more than 1,000ha of area being engulfed by fire since the beginning of 2026 as the province transitioned to the dry season.
According to the latest forecast by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), most regions in Indonesia will enter the dry season between late March and May, with its peak expected to fall in August, including in parts of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java.
The season is expected to be longer than the normal average recorded in the last 30 years, and those living in Java, Bali, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) will experience the dry season for around 10 months.
Sumatra and Kalimantan, meanwhile, will see shorter dry seasons of around six and nine months, although the risk of wildfire will still likely increase due to less rainfall.
“The rainfall during this year’s dry season will be lower than those recorded in previous years,” BMKG deputy head for climatology Ardhasena Sopaheluwakan told The Jakarta Post on March 11.
BMKG head Teuku Faisal Fathani last week urged the local authorities to secure reliable water access to prevent severe drought and crop failures in the upcoming months, especially in provinces such as East Java, NTT and NTB.
In September 2025, more than 43 villages across 26 districts in East Java suffered prolonged droughts, leaving some 1,300 households without access to water.
Also in 2025, around 212,000ha of forest and land, an area three times larger than capital Jakarta, were engulfed by fire across the country. Most of the fires occurred in North Sumatra, West Kalimantan and NTT. In 2026, Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forests has identified provinces vulnerable to fires, namely Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan, as well as South Papua.
“Priority areas for mitigation and preparedness are regions having extensive peatland ecosystems and those with fire history, particularly in Sumatra and Kalimantan,” said the ministry’s director for forest fire control Thomas Nifinluri.
Peatland ecosystems in various parts of the country are often drained to make way for numerous plantations, such as oil palm and pulpwood. Dried peatland is highly flammable and can be ignited naturally or by human activities.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency has urged the public to avoid burning waste and clearing land with fire to reduce the risk of fire, and said it is ready to launch weather modification operations once recommended by the weather agency.
In 2025, Indonesia experienced a “wetter dry season” as rain still poured down across the archipelago between June and August, a period when the dry season typically peaks. THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
