Indonesia Shows Countries How to Fight Forest Fires, One Policy at a Time

Indonesia has been setting a global example in fighting deforestation and wildfires as El Niño threatens the nation, as its President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo proves his commitment to protecting the nation’s forests and peatlands.

Jokowi has been implementing policies tackling forest fires that could be seen as a model for other countries to avoid such crises. Examples of policies include creating a peatland restoration agency, improving firefighting capabilities, fining those responsible for fires, and ensuring millions of hectares of tropical forests and peatlands forever remain off-limits to plantations through a permanent deforestation moratorium.

“The government has become much more serious on the fires and haze issue since 2015,” says Arief Wijaya, senior forests and climate manager at WRI Indonesia. Where in 2016 the country lost one million hectares of forests, the year after already saw the rate drop by 60 percent.

The number of hotspots, or areas with much higher temperatures than others nearby, have also been decreasing dramatically. In the first six months of 2019, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sightings detected 25% less hot spots than the same period the year prior.