Indonesia excluded from new international firefighting fund

A new $100 million international fire-fighting fund announced at the United Nations General Assembly has drawn criticism for being limited to South America, leaving Southeast Asia without targeted financial support.

Funding Gaps Leave Southeast Asia Out

Two American charities, Renaissance Philanthropy and Conservation X Labs, lead the newly established fund to help countries detect forest fires faster and suppress them earlier. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation contributed $30 million to the effort, while the David and Lucile Packard Foundation added $5 million. The model adapts established regional methods, such as an early-detection camera network deployed in Brazil and an Indigenous firefighting team that has operated in Bolivia for 15 years.

Despite the significant capital raised, the geographic scope remains limited to South America and the Amazon rainforest. Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and its vast forest reserves on the island of Borneo, has been excluded from the project’s current mandate.

Economic and Environmental Costs in Indonesia

The exclusion comes as Indonesia faces severe seasonal blazes. Government data indicates that fires burned more than 202,000 hectares of land between January and June, followed by almost 95,000 hectares in July alone. In West Kalimantan, thick smoke obscured the city of Pontianak from aerial view, forced school closures, and delayed flights while cross-border haze affected Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and the Philippines.

The Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS), a Jakarta-based research organization directed by Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara with Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat heading its China-Indonesia and MENA-Indonesia desks, estimates that fires between January and August cost Indonesia between 40 trillion and 123 trillion rupiah in lost business and health care expenses. For comparison, the World Bank calculated that severe fires in 2015 cost the country $16 billion, more than double the funds required to rebuild Aceh after the 2004 tsunami.

Peatland Vulnerability and El Niño Conditions

Controlling fires in Indonesia is complicated by the presence of extensive peat deposits. Peat is a soft, wet soil composed of accumulated dead plants built up over thousands of years, with Indonesia holding approximately 36% of the world’s tropical peat. Once dry, peat burns underground where traditional aerial water drops cannot reach. These conditions have been exacerbated by El Niño, which brings prolonged dry months to the region.

Bambang Hero Saharjo, who leads a fire management center for Southeast Asia, has called on the international community to assist Indonesia in extinguishing its fires.