In Indonesia, about 1.9 million hectares of forest have been consumed by fires from January through the end of September 2023, according to a monitoring organization that analyzes satellite imagery. This data was reported on Monday by France Presse.
This area is equivalent to one-twelfth of Romania’s total land mass and is considered a conservative estimate. David Gaveau, the founder of the deforestation monitoring site Nusantara Atlas, noted that smoke has hampered satellite analysis.
Since the Indonesian government has not released official figures on the areas affected since its last report in late July, which stated that 202,000 hectares had been devastated, the true extent of the damage is likely much higher than the 1,916,588 hectares estimated by Gaveau’s organization thus far.
Gaveau explained, “Our estimate of burnt areas is conservative for two reasons. First, we exclude areas of fire smaller than 6.25 hectares. Secondly, we aim to avoid erroneous detections.” This year, dense smoke has also obscured satellite images, making accurate assessment challenging.
Consequently, the total reported area burned likely underestimates the actual area affected. However, data from Nusantara Atlas indicates that by the end of September 2023, the area burned was 38% greater than the same period in 2019.
Satellites used by the monitoring system were unavailable during the severe fires of 2015, meaning there are no comparable data from that year. Nonetheless, Gaveau remarked, “The situation is likely just as severe. If we look at the raw number of fire outbreaks, the trend remains upward.”
