In brief
In the heart of Kalimantan, Indonesia’s peat swamp forests have become wildfire hotspots, shedding ancient carbon and choking millions. Peat fires are unique: they smolder underground, release toxic smoke for weeks, and drain life‑supporting wetlands. Indigenous Dayak peoples, who rely on these forests for food, medicine and cultural identity, face health crises and land loss as extraction and agricultural clearing dry out these soils. The BBC’s investigation in October 2026 shows how fire suppression failure, climate change, and economic pressures combine to make peat fires a hidden climate emergency. Solutions point to restoring natural wetness, protecting traditional knowledge, and enforcing land‑right policies that honor indigenous stewardship.
When a blaze turns a peat swamp into a rolling ember, it’s more than a wildfire – it’s a story of buried carbon, sighing communities and lost livelihoods. In central Kalimantan, Indonesia’s untamed peatlands have been turning black under the late‑summer sun, turning town‑sized patches of forest into a single obsessive haze that can affect Singapore, Malaysia and beyond.
Peat is an unusual type of soil: it stores more than a quarter of the world’s soil carbon, kept trapped in water‑logged, oxygen‑poor conditions. But when the peat is drained for palm oil plantations or peat‑cropping, it dries, and the first spark can trigger a slow‑moving fire that burrows deep beneath the surface. Those smoldering furnaces release methane and black carbon, and the smoke hangs over thousands of homes for weeks.
The BBC’s Liza Tambunan was on the ground on 13 October 2026, speaking with Dayak elders who have lived in these swamps for generations. They explained that the peatlands are not merely a resource, but a living library of medicinal plants and a cultural backbone. When the fire spreads, traditional medicine sources dry out, children can’t play in the creeks, and the community’s ancestral knowledge is pushed to the margins.
What makes peat fires particularly lethal is their persistence. Even large firefighting crews can fail to smother the subsurface burn, and the slow release of smoke keeps communities exposed to fine particulate matter and carbon monoxide that worsen respiratory conditions. In recent data, the haze in Kalimantan has pushed daily PM2.5 levels over 300 µg/m³, a figure dangerous for all ages.
Beyond the immediate health crisis, peat fires convert large swathes of wetlands into barren landscapes. The carbon stored in 70 million hectares of peat in Borneo has the potential to drive global temperature rises by up to 0.2°C if released unchecked. International aid has focused on silt‑producing measures, but without meaningful land‑right reforms that secure indigenous stewardship, peatlands remain vulnerable.
Renewable solutions are emerging: re‑watering abandoned drainage ditches, planting Swamp Fox grasses to stabilize soils, and involving local communities in fire monitoring through radio‑guided drones. By honoring the Dayak’s long‑standing practice of controlled burning shrublands, there is hope for a future where peatlands thrive, rather than flicker to ash.
The BBC’s investigation highlights a pressing question that transcends headlines: How do we protect the deep-rooted cultures and ecosystems that are now the targets of climate‑driven conflict? Only by listening to the voices that have cared for these peat forests for centuries can we craft fire‑resilient, just solutions.
