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Prabowo Declares Corporate Forest Burners as Environmental Terrorism

This article was translated by AI. Read the original article on Kompas.com. See Original

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President Prabowo Subianto leading the Plenary Cabinet Meeting coinciding with the anniversary of his administration at the Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday (21/10/2026).(Tangkapan layar Youtube Sekretariat Presiden.)

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - President Prabowo Subianto affirmed that deliberate forest burning leading to forest and land fires (karhutla) constitutes environmental terrorism.

This statement was made during a plenary cabinet meeting coinciding with the second anniversary of his administration at the Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday (21/10/2026).

"Many corporations are also responsible; the public is aware of various individuals intentionally setting fires, which we can classify as environmental terrorism," Prabowo emphasized during the meeting.

He also underscored that intentional forest burning is a crime against humanity.

The deliberate burning has resulted in karhutla, which affects the health of millions of people.

"We cannot take this lightly. We will now handle this issue on a large scale, but we will also investigate thoroughly, and this time, I’m sorry, we cannot act as usual," Prabowo stated.

If any corporation is found guilty, Prabowo asserted that the government would revoke all licenses from companies that violate regulations.

"And for certain countries that like to insult the Indonesian nation, at the right time, we will expose their companies," Prabowo added.

Previously, Minister of Forestry Raja Juli Antoni announced the suspension of the Forest Utilization Business Licenses (PBPH) of six companies linked to the forest and land fires (karhutla).

The six companies whose forest utilization licenses were suspended are located in Central Kalimantan (Kalteng). They are also required to undertake ecosystem recovery efforts.

"So today, once again in accordance with the order of the President, we are implementing the suspension accompanied by mandatory ecosystem recovery against the six companies I mentioned," Raja stated at the Palace Complex in Jakarta on Wednesday (21/10/2026).

In total, the Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut) has administratively sanctioned 32 companies related to karhutla from various regions in Indonesia.

"So the total area of concessions that we have given, whether it’s suspension, revocation, or mandatory ecosystem recovery, amounts to 1,931,115 hectares across 32 concessions," Raja Juli explained.