What makes peat so different from ordinary soil is its composition and water content. Peat forms over centuries from partially decomposed plant material in waterlogged conditions, storing large amounts of carbon. When peatlands are kept wet they act as an important carbon sink, but once drained and exposed to the air the organic material dries, becomes flammable and can burn deep below the surface.
Peat fires are notoriously difficult to control. Unlike surface blazes that burn through vegetation, peat can smoulder underground for weeks or months, reigniting surface fires and emitting dense haze. The smoke from burning peat contains a complex mix of pollutants that can travel for hundreds of kilometres, creating health risks, reducing visibility and disrupting transport and schools across the region.
Human activity has increased the vulnerability of Indonesia’s peatlands. Large areas have been drained and cleared for agriculture, plantations and other development, and small-scale burning is often used to clear land. These practices lower water levels and make peat more susceptible to ignition, while seasonal droughts — sometimes linked to El Niño — further raise the risk of widespread blazes. The result this year has been the worst wildfire season the country has seen in a decade.
The consequences are both local and global. Locally, communities face respiratory illness, damage to livelihoods and loss of biodiversity. Globally, burning peat releases vast stores of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Suppressing peat fires requires different methods to those used for typical forest fires, focusing on rewetting and restoring water tables, blocking drainage canals and coordinated land management, but these long-term measures can conflict with short-term economic interests and are resource-intensive to implement.
Indonesian authorities, conservation groups and affected communities continue to grapple with how best to reduce the risk of peat fires while balancing development needs. Experts say preventing future seasons like this will depend on restoring and protecting peatlands, improving land-use enforcement, and adapting agricultural practices to avoid further drainage and burning of these sensitive landscapes.