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View all search resultsIs the palm industry the only culprit behind wildfires?
Blaming the palm oil industry for Indonesian fires fueling Southeast Asia’s transboundary haze is an easy narrative, but rigorous evidence and reality tell a far more complex story.
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People travel the Kahayan River on motorized longboats on Oct. 18, 2026, as haze from forest and peatland fires shrouds Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan. (Reuters/Arief Rahman Septian Prathama)
F
orest and peatland fires in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua have triggered a severe transboundary haze crisis across Southeast Asia, impacting neighboring nations such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The consequences across the region are acute and far-reaching: deteriorating air quality, spikes in respiratory illnesses, school closures, flight disruptions, suppressed tourism and widespread socioeconomic fallout.
It is entirely justifiable for the public to question who is responsible and to examine the root causes. However, it is fundamentally flawed to reduce the issue to a single culprit: the palm oil industry. Despite this narrative being widely amplified across social media, the reality is far more complex.
Multiple sectors are actively engaged in land clearing and land management across Indonesia. Beyond oil palm cultivation, these include industrial forestry, other plantation crops, smallholder agriculture, mining and various infrastructure developments.
While satellite imagery often detects hot spots and burn scars within oil palm concessions, correlation must not be conflated with causation. The mere presence of fire within a concession boundary does not establish that the concession holder initiated it.
Numerous operational and environmental variables must be considered. Fires frequently ignite outside concession borders and sweep inward or originate within community-held enclaves inside concessions, over which companies exercise no direct control. In such scenarios, oil palm operators are victims rather than perpetrators.
Furthermore, external human activities often produce sparks or embers that are carried into plantation areas by high winds. These landscapes are exceptionally vulnerable during periods of severe drought, compounded in critical years by the El Niño phenomenon.
