Forest fires ran rampant across Indonesia in the summer of 2013, spreading a toxic haze across South East Asia. Governments and NGOs are using WRI’s data andanalysisto hold palm oil and timber companies accountable for these damaging forest and peat fires.

The Challenge

Burning forest is illegal in Indonesia. Yet June 2013 was one of the worst months for Indonesia’s fires in more than a decade, spreading an enormous cloud of haze and unhealthy pollution across the country and into Malaysia and Singapore. However, the governments of South East Asia didn’t have access to the same forest data, making it difficult to know where the fires were located and who might be responsible.

WRI’s Role

Using data from NASA and the Indonesian government, WRI was able to show within a few hours that half of the fires were within the boundaries of timber plantations and oil palm concessions. We leveraged our deep expertise on Indonesian forest and land issues, strong data analysis, and communications expertise to frame the issues around the fires and encourage governments to hold specific companies accountable. Our experts provided in-depth background information, clarified the facts where possible, and offered ongoing insights to media, resulting in coverage in more than 200 local and international outlets, including theNew York Times,Wall Street Journal,Guardian,Jakarta Post,Jakarta Globe, andStraits Times. The fires analysis became the most viewedblog seriesin WRI history, with more than 27,000 page views. This significant media outreach and attention improved the understanding of the crisis internationally, and helped build momentum to solve the problem.

Our Impact

印尼和新加坡政府表示，他们将起诉被指控将非法大火的主要公司清除棕榈油和果肉种植园的土地。至关重要的是，印度尼西亚，新加坡，马来西亚，文莱和泰国的政府在东盟国际峰会上同意使用卫星技术建立一个监测火灾的联合平台。他们还将在政府之间共享公司的特许权数据，以使公司在土地上发现大火时负责。提高数据的可用性，执法和政府合作可以大大减少印度尼西亚森林和泥炭地射击的发生，从而增强当地社区的健康和经济。

Moving forward, WRI will useGlobal Forest Watch, a soon-to-be-launched forest monitoring system, to push for strong natural resource management on a worldwide scale.