Posted inIndonesia / News / Palm Oil / Wildfire

Peatland fires rage through Indonesia’s Sumatra Island

The advancing fires are clearly delineated by the haze in Cengal, Ogan Komering Ilir district. Image by Nopri Ismi/Mongabay Indonesia.

Nearly half of Cengal subdistrict, which spans a little over 2,400 square kilometers (925 square miles), is peatland. Much of the peat area has been razed for oil palm pulpwood plantations. On Oct. 24, fires were spotted on parts of these peatlands. The fires this year are the worst since 2015, exacerbated by an unusually intense dry season and an El Niño weather pattern. The fires are set deliberately to clear land for oil palm and pulpwood plantations, and the smoke they generate has sickened hundreds of thousands of people and spread as far as neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.

— source news.mongabay.com | 1 Nov 2019

 

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