On Wednesday, President Prabowo Subianto called for a zero‑tolerance approach to slash‑and‑burn fires that have scorched 800,000 hectares across Indonesia this season.
He instructed the state secretary and the law minister to review existing penalties and urged the House of Representatives to label the offences as “ecological terrorism.”
Police have opened 219 criminal investigations, naming 162 suspects and probing 95 companies, according to Police Commissioner Mohammad Irhamni. The investigations target both individual landholders and large agribusiness firms that violate fire‑safety rules.
The fire season, intensified by a powerful El Niño, has forced more than 12.5 million people across seven provinces into haze‑laden air, doubling cases of respiratory illness in early September.
Prabowo also ordered regional governments to drop exemptions that allow smallholders to use fire for land clearing, while police will pursue corporate culprits. A smallholder in West Kalimantan was recently charged for burning a 30‑hectare plot, sparking protests among local farmers.
The next phase will see the law ministry draft stricter sanctions, the parliament debate the ecological‑terrorism classification, and authorities enforce the new rules as the dry season peaks in September.