Nearly 10,000 hotspots were recorded in peat hydrological zones across Kalimantan between January and April 2026, with 9,270 of the 9,853 total thermal anomalies concentrated in West Kalimantan; Central Kalimantan contributed 438 and South Kalimantan 25. Crucially, 91% of all hotspots — 8,983 points — fell within commercial concession boundaries, including 6,571 inside land-use-right (HGU) areas and 2,412 in forest-use business permit zones. Putra Saptian, campaign officer at peatland monitoring group Pantau Gambut, linked the concession concentration to continuous peat ecosystem deterioration: drainage canals cut through peat domes for plantation and commercial purposes lower groundwater tables, leaving the peat dry and prone to ignition.
The West Kalimantan branch of Walhi (Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia), the national environmental advocacy network, found that approximately 2.79 million hectares of peat hydrological zones have been reclassified from protected to cultivation status. Walhi Kalbar cited Ministry of Forestry figures showing 25,420.73 hectares burned in West Kalimantan between January and March 2026 alone. One death has already been recorded: a 67-year-old woman with a history of asthma died in February in Mempawah Regency after being exposed to smoke from peatland fires near her home. In South Kalimantan, Walhi executive director Raden Rafiq warned that roughly 51% of the province is now encumbered by commercial licences, degrading peatlands that otherwise function as carbon stores and dry-season water buffers.
Looking ahead, Walhi Central Kalimantan director Janang Palanungkai projects fires to increase roughly 20% year-on-year in 2026, citing El Niño risk and the ongoing expansion of the government’s food-estate-linked rice-field conversion programme into peat areas. That programme targeted 75,000–85,740 hectares of new rice fields in 2025, while the Agriculture Ministry identified 100,000 hectares of ready-to-convert land in Kapuas and Pulang Pisau as part of a broader food-zone development at an estimated budget of approximately Rp 3 trillion. Kitso Kusin, a forestry academic at Universitas Palangka Raya, drew on groundwater monitoring data spanning 2004–2021 to show a consistent relationship between the depth of water-table drawdown during dry seasons and fire severity — a dynamic he traced to large-scale peat canal drainage that began with a million-hectare agricultural project in the late 1990s and recurred in major fire years including 2015 and 2019.
Carbon Market Context
- Peatlands are among the most carbon-dense terrestrial ecosystems; their drainage and burning directly deplete the soil organic carbon stocks that form the basis of the soil-carbon credit pathway.
- Active methodologies in the soil carbon space include the Gold Standard SOC Activity Module for Improved Tillage Practices (GOLD-402-1-TILLAGE-V1-0) and the BCarbon Soil Carbon Protocol v3.0 (BCARBON-SOIL-CARBON-V3-0), both of which quantify changes in soil organic carbon — the same physical asset being depleted by the canal drainage and land conversion described in Kalimantan.
- Notable active developers in the soil carbon pathway include Varaha Climate AG Private Limited, Boomitra Inc, the Livelihoods Fund SICAV SIF, Harbin Ruying Technology Co., Ltd., and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development — a spread that reflects both Asian and global developer interest in crediting soil carbon improvements where hydrological stability is a prerequisite.
- The reclassification of approximately 2.79 million hectares of peat hydrological zones from protected to cultivation status, combined with an expanding rice-field programme, directly undermines the stable water-table conditions required to establish or sustain a credible soil organic carbon baseline for any future credit issuance in these landscapes.
Source
- Risiko Kebakaran Makin Tinggi Ketika Gambut Kalimantan Rusak Rendy Tisna 24 Jun 2026Mongabay Indonesia, 2026-06-24