00:00 This is a family-owned farm. Putting out fires like the one that destroyed this land is routine
00:06 for firefighters in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. It happens every year. The ground is peat,
00:14 it's highly flammable and hot spots can linger underground. Annie Dilesa farms oranges here.
00:22 She successfully protected her trees when fire came to her neighborhood,
00:27 but the flames took her neighbor's chicken coop.
00:30 There was fire over there, around that area and over here. We called the firefighters,
00:39 but when they arrived, everything had burnt down, not because they were too late,
00:43 but because they had to handle the fires in other places too.
00:47 Authorities have been trying to stop people lighting fires to clear land.
00:54 This poster says, "Stop burning the forest" and says those found guilty of doing it on purpose
01:01 can be jailed for up to 15 years. But firefighters continue to be busy,
01:07 even though locals tell us many no longer set fires.
01:11 And the Disaster Management Agency says the fires are due to people.
01:19 Almost 99% of the fire is generated by human activities,
01:23 whether it's intentional or due to negligence. Natural factors such as this year's El Nino
01:29 will make the situation and conditions around Central Kalimantan, which is still
01:34 dominated by land and forests, become more flammable and lead to wildfires.
01:39 Some small fires are allowed in order to clear land for small-scale farmers. But local campaigners
01:49 say the rules are being exploited by big companies.
01:53 Most of these regulations are also used by other actors,
02:00 who, from what we've learned, have different motives. It's important to differentiate between
02:06 these regulations, which are meant to protect communities based on local culture,
02:11 and the bigger actors, who are motivated by the economic benefits that they want to achieve.
02:18 Some of those bigger actors are being prosecuted. In 2019, investigators charged seven companies
02:28 for slash-and-burn clearing peat forests. Several were fined.
02:33 But the fact that Indonesian Borneo keeps burning should increase pressure on authorities to stop
02:42 all those who light fires, big and small.
02:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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