ASEAN Beat | Environment | Southeast Asia

Civil Society Groups File Lawsuit Against Indonesian Government Over Kalimantan Wildfires

The suit accuses President Prabowo Subianto and other senior officials of deliberate negligence for failing to prevent and properly handle the ongoing blazes.

The sun rises through wildfire haze in a town in Berau regency, in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province, Aug. 20, 2026.

A group of ⁠indigenous ⁠and civil society organizations ⁠in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province has filed a class-action ​lawsuit against the country’s government, accusing it of failing to prevent and handle the wildfires currently raging across the region.

The class action lawsuit was filed on September 17 at the Pontianak District Court by a coalition of civil groups known as Nafas Kalimantan Barat, which translates as “the breath of West Kalimantan,” Tempo reported.

The plaintiffs include the West Kalimantan chapter of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, the environmental group Laman Puyung Indonesia, and the leadership of the West Kalimantan Catholic Youth, as well as the citizen-activist Sisilius Rami.

The lawsuit names President Prabowo Subianto, Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the national police chief, and the head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), as well as the governor and police chief of West Kalimantan, and the ministries of health, forestry, and environment.

It accuses them of deliberate negligence for failing to prevent and properly handle the ongoing wildfires, arguing that the disaster has overwhelmed provincial capacity. It also seeks a court order that would force the government to declare a national disaster, which would enable greater financial assistance for affected areas.

For months, Kalimantan has been battling its most intense wildfires since 2015. According to a report in The Guardian, “photos from Kalimantan have shown a thick, sepia-toned haze shrouding streets and obscuring cities, schoolchildren wearing masks at their desks, and even rescuers giving oxygen to smoke-affected orangutans.” Fires are also raging in Sumatra and in parts of Papua.

Since January, nearly 900,000 hectares have been burned across Indonesia, according to data from Nusantara Atlas, which tracks fires and deforestation in Asia. This falls short of the 2.6 million hectares that were destroyed in 2015, and the 1.65 million hectares that were consumed by wildfires in 2019, but Nusantara Atlas stated that........

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