Indonesia's forest and land fire area reached 160,104 hectares by July 2021.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) reports a decrease in the area of forest and land fires (karhutla) in Indonesia. Up to July 31st of this year, the karhutla area totaled 160,104 hectares, while in the same period last year it reached 296,942 hectares. This means that the karhutla area has decreased by 85.46%.

Nevertheless, KLHK, together with other parties, remains vigilant about the potential increase in karhutla during the dry season, which is expected to occur from August to October 2021, by undertaking karhutla prevention efforts. Up to August 27th of this year, Integrated Patrols for Karhutla Prevention were carried out in karhutla-prone areas in 219 village posts, reaching 621 villages surrounding the village posts.

Specifically, the number of posts where Integrated Patrols have been conducted includes 17 locations in North Sumatra, 55 in Riau, 2 in Riau Islands, 25 in Jambi, 34 in South Sumatra, 29 in West Kalimantan, 26 in Central Kalimantan, 18 in South Kalimantan, and 13 in East Kalimantan.

By province, the largest karhutla area up to July this year occurred in East Nusa Tenggara, reaching 63,270 hectares. This was followed by West Nusa Tenggara with a karhutla area of 33,521 hectares.

Director General of Climate Change Control, Laksmi Dhewanti, stated that this year karhutla disasters also occurred in the United States with an area of 3.5 million hectares, Russia 1.5 million hectares, Canada 580,000 hectares, Bolivia 150,000 hectares, Turkey 95,000 hectares, Greece 56,600 hectares, and Italy 20,000 hectares.