West Kalimantan residents sue Indonesian officials over wildfire haze

Residents and civil-society groups in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province are taking the government to court over a wildfire and haze crisis that has affected public health and sent smoke across national borders. The coalition Nafas Kalimantan Barat, or West Kalimantan Breathe, filed a class-action lawsuit on September 17 against President Prabowo Subianto, Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka and 25 other officials and state bodies. The first hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

The plaintiffs accuse the authorities of failing to handle the fires effectively. More than 48,000 hectares of land and forest have burned in West Kalimantan since the start of the year, according to Indonesia’s national disaster management agency. The Health Ministry has recorded more than 175,000 acute respiratory infections nationally, including more than 116,000 in West Kalimantan.

Nearly 28,000 of the province’s recorded patients were under five, according to the source material. The plaintiffs want the fires declared a national disaster, saying local authorities lack the budget and resources to manage them. They are also seeking audits of burned forest, publication of the findings, investigations into environmental crimes and prosecutions of those responsible.

Lawyer Glorio Sanen said the dry conditions and forecast El Nino made the fires foreseeable. National police had named 196 suspects linked to fires covering more than 5,000 hectares in several provinces. Previous environmental lawsuits have produced mixed results.

A 2016 case over Central Kalimantan fires was eventually overturned, while a 2021 air-pollution ruling against the government has not fully resolved Jakarta’s pollution. Legal experts warn that procedural objections and weak enforcement could limit the impact of any victory.