JAKARTA: The fire report came in just after the Eid al-Adha prayer in 2019, and Zulkatab did not wait for the sermon.
“We didn’t get to hear the sermon,” he recalled. “We went straight out, and at that time we were putting out fires for almost three weeks.”
Zulkatab, now 55, is a former plantation worker who leads the Masyarakat Peduli Api (MPA), a community-based volunteer fire prevention group in Desa Tambak, Langgam district, Pelalawan Regency, Riau Province.
That year, its members spent the holiday on the fire line instead of gathering with their families for Eid al-Adha.
They were not alone. Fire burned 1.65 million hectares across Indonesia in 2019, according to the government’s SiPongi fire monitoring system.
In Tambak, the haze brought respiratory illness, closed schools and a sky thick with smoke, he said. By 2024, the area burned across Indonesia had fallen to about 377,000 hectares.
Seven years on, Zulkatab sees a different attitude in his village. Residents who once left fire prevention to a handful of volunteers now join patrols and turn out when a fire breaks out.
That broader participation is particularly important in places like Tambak, where village land borders oil palm plantations. Fire can cross these boundaries in either direction. Through its subsidiary PT Mitra Unggul Pusaka (MUP), Asian Agri operates plantations in Langgam district and works with nearby villages on fire prevention.
Nearby residents are often best placed to spot and contain small fires early, using branches and a pump. Satellites can detect hotspots and drones can map a blaze. But technology cannot replace the local relationships needed to discourage burning, or the neighbours who bring food and water to crews on the fire line.
Changing habits in the village
Before the 2019 fires, Zulkatab said, many residents in Tambak saw fire prevention as the responsibility of the MPA alone. The severe haze that year changed that perception.
Asian Agri began working with Tambak before the 2019 haze. Through Asian Agri’s Fire-Free Village Programme, launched in 2016, it has trained the MPA in firefighting and community outreach while encouraging land clearing without burning.
Tambak renewed its agreement with Asian Agri in 2021 and won the programme’s award for the 2020 to 2021 period, when it recorded no fires. By 2025, the programme covered 16 villages.
That year, none of the 185 hotspots detected in surrounding communities developed into a fire, according to Asian Agri’s sustainability report.
The village’s habits have changed too. Burning to prepare a plot or replant oil palm, once common, has become rarer in Tambak, Zulkatab observed. Years of dealing with fires and regular community engagement have helped residents understand the consequences of burning.
Landowners who cannot afford to plant now tend to find someone with capital who will plant without burning, sharing the harvest income. MPA members patrol the area and tackle small fires using basic firefighting equipment, increasing the frequency of patrols after four consecutive days without rain.
“We follow the four-day rule [days without rain] year-round, not just during the dry season,” Zulkatab said. When a fire grows beyond their capacity, they turn to Asian Agri’s fire team for support.
The 45-member fire team is led by Dani Nugraha Syafly, the company’s fire coordinator, and conducts its own patrols. A crew that confirms a fire sends back a list of what it needs.
The team uses satellite data and thermal-camera drones, and Asian Agri is preparing a command centre to centralise its monitoring. Hotspots detected by satellite must still be verified on the ground, while reports from villagers help crews respond quickly.
Zulkatab credits the company’s support with playing an important part in keeping the fire in check. Asian Agri says it has had a no-burn policy since 1994.
“Fire hurts the land, the economy and people’s health,” said Sufryiadi, Asian Agri’s plantation group manager in Langgam. “We want communities to feel the same responsibility for looking after the environment.”
That responsibility goes for everyone in the community, regardless of age, gender or background. Annisa Dea, one of the few women on Asian Agri’s fire team, operates a drone to locate the fire’s leading edge and map its spread.
The aerial view is especially valuable when smoke and difficult terrain limit visibility from the ground, helping crews decide where to focus their response. In Tambak, volunteers’ wives and other women have fed the crews since 2019, and Zulkatab’s wife packs water and food each time he goes on duty. “Their support gives us peace of mind and keeps us going,” Zulkatab added.
Putting prevention to the test
This year’s fires, fueled by a prolonged dry season linked to a very strong El Niño, have drawn international attention. Haze from fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan has drifted into neighbouring countries, including Singapore and Malaysia.
Riau has not escaped the dry season. There, 15,318 hectares burned from January to May 2026. This was lower than the 27,724 hectares recorded during the same period in 2019, according to Manggala Agni, the Forestry Ministry’s fire brigade.
By mid-October, the picture had eased. On the morning of Oct. 17, the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded nine hotspots in Riau.
Asian Agri says no land has burned in its North Sumatra, Riau and Jambi operations this year. It has also distributed masks in cities including Pekanbaru and Jambi to help protect residents from haze. The villages around its plantations are where that prevention is tested.
Tambak’s test came on a Friday in late September. An Asian Agri patrol and its drone spotted a fire in scrubland during Friday prayers, when most residents were at the mosque.
“We had no choice. We had to stop the fire before it spread,” Elman said. When prayers ended, residents went straight there with drinking water and food.
Together they put out the fire in four hours. Before 2019, that would not have happened, Zulkatab believes.
The fire burned less than a hectare, compared with about 50 hectares in 2019. Both fires occurred on village land outside of Asian Agri’s concession.
Such rapid responses depend heavily on the volunteers’ personal commitment. “This is purely voluntary work,” Zulkatab said.
The volunteers receive only a small incentive from village funds, and he has sometimes spent his own money on it. The MPA and Asian Agri’s fire team also educate residents and raise awareness of the health, environmental and legal consequences of land clearing by fire.
The work will need new hands. Zulkatab, who expects to retire soon, wants younger people in Tambak to take a bigger part, and he sees many already starting to care. “This tradition, this good habit of preventing fire, has to be made stronger and carried on,” he said.
Nature will not always give the village warning. Whatever the next dry season brings, keeping fire away will take everyone, from the company’s crews to the village’s youngest volunteers, along with the slow work of changing how land is cleared and cared for.
So far, the volunteers and Asian Agri’s fire team have put out fires before they could spread, but that has not made anyone less watchful. The BMKG says El Niño is expected to last until early 2027, hence the patrols and the partnership behind them will not stop, even when the rains come. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
