Indonesia has announced that it will assess international offers of assistance to combat widespread forest and land fires based on the type of aid provided, as the government aims to extinguish all active fires in less than a month.
Speaking at a forum in Jakarta on Tuesday 13th October, Environment Minister Jumhur Hidayat stressed that Indonesian authorities need to establish how effectively any international assistance could accelerate critical firefighting operations on the ground.
Although the minister did not explicitly name specific countries, neighbouring Malaysia had previously offered firefighting aircraft, three helicopters, and 52 specialist personnel to assist with emergency operations. Singapore has also said it remains prepared to help Indonesia fight forest fires wherever necessary amid the ongoing regional haze crisis.
Widespread land and forest fires have raged across parts of Indonesia for several weeks, causing severe transboundary haze, a significant rise in acute respiratory conditions across the three affected countries, and the forced closure of schools in Malaysia, most recently across the southern state of Johor.
Minister Hidayat explained on Tuesday that small deployments of international personnel may have a limited overall impact, given that Indonesia has already deployed tens of thousands of its own emergency responders. The same principle applies to international assistance involving specialised water-bombing aircraft, which must be carefully evaluated based on precise operational needs and overall effectiveness, state news agency Antara reported him as saying.
Indonesian authorities have previously noted that ground operations have remained more dominant during the response effort because several affected areas are exceptionally difficult to access by helicopter due to extremely thick smoke.
Minister Hidayat said Indonesia aims to extinguish all active forest and land fires in less than a month, as joint response teams continue firefighting operations across several severely affected regions. Efforts have focused on Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra provinces.
“Based on discussions with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), it should take a few weeks (to extinguish the fires). But since intensity is already starting to decline, hopefully it will take less (than a month),” Minister Hidayat said. However, limited local water supplies and ongoing operational challenges continue to hamper frontline firefighting efforts.
In a direct bid to tackle recurring seasonal blazes, the Indonesian government plans to eliminate the legal exemption permitting small-scale land burning on plots of up to two hectares per household under traditional practices. The government is also considering prohibiting the replanting of commercial plantation crops, including oil palm, on concession land that has been burned before commercial planting.
Minister Hidayat warned that the Indonesian government would impose strict legal sanctions if intentional burning were found to have occurred in concession areas.
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