Prabowo Warns Forest Fires Must Not Reach Core Zone of New Capital

President Prabowo Subianto has warned that forest and land fires in Kalimantan must not spread into the core zone of the project to build Indonesia’s new capital, known as IKN.

Prabowo issued the warning after receiving a report from National Disaster Management Agency chief Suharyanto during a virtual limited meeting on Monday. “The fires near IKN must also receive attention. Perhaps we need to deploy more assets to make sure the fires do not reach the core zone,” Prabowo said.

Suharyanto said fires continued to affect six priority provinces: Riau, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Sumatra and Jambi. West Kalimantan has the largest area of burned land among those provinces, while BNPB and other agencies continue firefighting operations.

Fires have also been reported in East Kalimantan, outside the priority-province grouping, in the IKN area. Suharyanto said 458 hectares of land there had burned and efforts to extinguish the fires were still under way.

BNPB has deployed ground and aerial task forces. Suharyanto said ground teams remained the main force because weather conditions often disrupt aerial operations. He added that although much of the burned land in the six priority provinces had been extinguished, smoke continued to emerge from peatland, allowing fires to reappear.

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The fires near IKN must also receive attention. Perhaps we need to deploy more assets to make sure the fires do not reach the core zone.