How Smoke from Indonesian Fires Is Affecting Southeast Asia

Thick smog has blanketed parts of Indonesia as fires burn across large areas of Borneo and Sumatra, sending hazardous smoke into Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The haze has increased respiratory problems and forced schools to close or move classes online.

Most of the fires are concentrated on Borneo, which Indonesia shares with Brunei and Malaysia, as well as on Sumatra. Nearly 300,000 hectares of Indonesian land have burned this year, according to an independent estimate from the Nusantara Atlas portal.

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We're seeing already now... really extreme fire emissions comparable to those previous strong El Nino years, and also the extent of the smoke and the haze and the air quality impacts.

Indonesia's carbon emissions rose sharply from late July. By the end of August, emissions were comparable to levels recorded during the strong El Niño years of 2015 and 2019, Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, told AFP. "We're seeing already now... really extreme fire emissions comparable to those previous strong El Nino years, and also the extent of the smoke and the haze and the air quality impacts," he said.

CAMS' Fire Emission Watch portal recorded more than 23 million metric tons of carbon emissions from fires between August 28 and September 3. That exceeded the 20.7 million metric tons recorded during the same period in 2015.

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El Nino does not ignite fires. It creates the dry conditions that allow human-started fires to escape and become very large.

Analysts said El Niño, which the United Nations said could become the strongest in four decades, has dried conditions and allowed fires to spread. But land-clearing practices also contributed. "El Nino does not ignite fires. It creates the dry conditions that allow human-started fires to escape and become very large," said David Gaveau, founder of the Nusantara Atlas.

Many fires are burning on peatlands. When these wetlands dry out, their layers of partially decomposed organic material become fuel. More than 210,000 hotspots were detected in peatland areas between January and August, according to the NGO Pantau Gambut. More than five million people across Borneo and Sumatra face direct health risks, while over 1.4 million students were attending classes remotely. Malaysia declared an emergency in part of Sarawak after pollution levels surged.

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Peat is a naturally wet ecosystem and stores large amounts of organic material. When peat is drained, this organic material is converted into fuel.