KLHK Detects 85 Hotspots in Indonesia, Most in Central Sulawesi (Wednesday, February 18, 2026)

Based on the SiPongi forest and land fire monitoring system of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), monitoring over the last 24 hours shows 85 hotspots detected in Indonesia. This number of hotspots is a decrease of 119 points compared to the previous period.

The data is the result of satellite imagery from Terra/Aqua, SNPP, and NOAA accessed on Wednesday (February 18, 2026) at 11:47 WIB. Of the 85 detected hotspots, 5 have a high hotspot confidence level, 79 are medium scale, and 1 is low scale.

Hotspot confidence levels are divided into 3 scales. Low scale ranges from 0 - 29, medium scale from 30 - 79, and high scale from 80 - 100. The higher the hotspot confidence level, the higher the possibility of forest and land fires occurring in a particular area.

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Most hotspots were detected in Central Sulawesi, totaling 23 points. East Kalimantan ranks second with 18 hotspots, and South Sulawesi is third with 12 hotspots.

9 hotspots were detected in North Maluku, East Java followed with 8 hotspots, while Southeast Sulawesi and West Kalimantan have 4 and 3 detected hotspots respectively.

Hotspots are coordinate points in an area with a higher surface temperature than its surroundings, and do not represent the number of forest and land fire incidents.

However, a large number of clustered hotspots in an area indicates the occurrence of forest and land fires. This means that remote sensing satellite-detected hotspot data remains the most effective way to monitor forest and land fires over large areas.

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