The Indonesian portion of Borneo, known as Kalimantan, is facing a severe social, ecological, and humanitarian crisis. Fueled by prolonged dry spells, compounding climate anomalies, and historical land-clearing practices, massive wildfires have swept across approximately 48,000 hectares (nearly 119,000 acres) of land in the region. According to Indigenous activist and filmmaker Kynan Tegar, who spoke extensively on a recent episode of the Mongabay Newscast, these catastrophic blazes are not isolated natural disasters; rather, they are largely intentional byproducts of corporate agricultural expansion and systemic environmental mismanagement.
The crisis extends far beyond the smoke and visible flames. More than 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of fragile peatlands have been systematically drained through a network of industrial canals originally constructed decades ago. This terraforming, compounded by the severe convergence of human-driven climate change and an intense El Niño cycle, has triggered an acute water crisis across one of the world’s most biodiverse tropical rainforests. Local communities, traditionally accustomed to thriving alongside nature, now find themselves battling extreme freshwater shortages and agricultural stagnation.
Amid this unfolding tragedy, Tegar—a prominent voice for the Iban people of Sungai Utik—continues to champion Indigenous land rights, community-led conservation, and radical grassroots action. However, her advocacy takes place against an increasingly hostile sociopolitical backdrop. As a transgender woman, Tegar navigates the profound chilling effects of a controversial national designation that frames LGBTQ+ communities as non-military threats to the state. Despite facing intersecting layers of cultural, economic, and political oppression, Tegar’s work—ranging from her acclaimed spoken-word music video Earth Defender to her participation in the global documentary project A Day on Earth—underscores a vital truth: safeguarding the planet requires recognizing and empowering its original stewards.
Detailed Chronology: From Suharto’s Concessions to Modern Catastrophe
To fully grasp the mechanics of the current fires in Kalimantan, one must trace the timeline of state-sanctioned environmental transformation back more than half a century. The structural vulnerabilities being exploited by today’s climate anomalies are deeply rooted in historical policy decisions.
The New Order Regime and the Genesis of Concessions (1970s)
The systematic destabilization of Kalimantan’s ecosystems began in earnest during the 1970s under the New Order regime of President Suharto. During this period, the central government in Jakarta began aggressively issuing sweeping land concessions to private corporations. This policy gave commercial entities virtually unchecked authority to alter landscapes for industrial logging, large-scale palm oil plantations, and gold mining operations. Indigenous communities, whose ancestral ties to the land spanned centuries, were routinely sidelined or ignored, establishing a precedent of corporate dominance over customary territories.
The Mega-Rice Project and Peatland Desiccation (1995)
A critical turning point in the region’s hydrological stability occurred in 1995 with the launch of the ambitious yet ill-fated "Mega-Rice Project" in Central Kalimantan, near Palangkaraya. The state-driven initiative aimed to convert 1 million hectares of pristine peatland into expansive rice cultivation fields.
Although the project ultimately collapsed prematurely following the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998—leaving a mere 4,000 hectares actually planted with rice—the ecological damage was already done. The initiative left behind a vast network of drainage canals designed to dry out the water-saturated peat soils. These canals permanently altered the regional hydrology, transforming carbon-rich, fire-resistant peatlands into tinderboxes primed for disaster.
The 2023–2026 Fire Crisis and Water Emergencies
Fast-forwarding to the contemporary era, the structural damage inflicted decades ago has converged with modern climatic extremes. Beginning in July and persisting across extended seasonal cycles, unchecked agricultural burning has combined with unprecedented droughts.
In West Kalimantan’s Kapuas Hulu Regency—home to Danau Sentarum National Park, one of the world’s largest floodplains—extended periods without rain have evaporated local water sources, leaving ancient lakebeds resembling arid deserts. For Indigenous villages like Sungai Utik, the absence of rainfall has compacted agricultural soils to the point where traditional swidden (shifting cultivation) farming has become nearly impossible, threatening local food security and forcing daily survival to depend on emergency water distribution efforts.
Supporting Context & Metrics: The Intersection of Land Rights, Climate, and Gender
The convergence of systemic inequalities, environmental degradation, and human rights violations paints a grim picture of modern Indonesia. Quantitative data and qualitative observations reveal the multifaceted nature of the crisis.
The Scale of Destruction and the Indigenous Stewardship Correlation
- 48,000 Hectares: The estimated land area burned by fires in Kalimantan during the current crisis cycle.
- 1 Million+ Hectares: The acreage of fragile peatland drained through historical industrial canals, primarily originating from the 1995 Mega-Rice Project and subsequent corporate concessions.
- 9,480 Hectares: The size of the legally recognized customary forest (hutan adat) secured by the Iban community of Sungai Utik in 2020 after decades of resistance.
- The Fire Hotspot Correlation: Satellite fire-tracking data consistently demonstrates a stark inverse relationship: in regions where Indigenous land rights are formally recognized and protected, active fire hotspots are virtually nonexistent. This empirical evidence highlights Indigenous communities as the world’s most effective conservation stewards.
The Gendered Dimension of the Climate Crisis
Environmental catastrophes are rarely gender-neutral. While international media coverage often highlights masculine narratives—focusing primarily on male firefighters on the front lines—the daily burden of environmental collapse falls disproportionately on women and local community members.
During the water crisis in Kalimantan, women have borne the primary domestic responsibility of securing clean water for their families, often carrying heavy jugs across vast distances. This gendered vulnerability underscores how climate change acts as a multiplier of existing social inequalities, demanding more inclusive and holistic approaches to environmental reporting and disaster relief.
Official Statements and Sociopolitical Hurdles
Kynan Tegar’s advocacy confronts not only corporate landgrabbers and climate degradation, but also legislative bottlenecks and systemic discrimination within the Indonesian sociopolitical landscape.
The Long-Delayed Indigenous Peoples Bill
For over 16 years, the Indigenous Peoples Bill (Rancangan Undang-Undang Masyarakat Adat) has languished in parliamentary limbo. While the legislation promises broader legal recognition for customary territories across the archipelago, Tegar remains skeptical of its potential to enact true justice.
"I don’t see elements within it that will redress the historic inequality that we have faced," Tegar noted during her Mongabay interview. "I think that’s still a massive problem that needs more than just a legal solution. You need a very holistic solution to be able to tackle an issue that big because it’s economical, it’s social, it’s also cultural."
LGBTQ+ Persecution and State-Sanctioned Threat Designations
Tegar’s identity as a transgender woman adds a profound layer of personal risk to her public advocacy. Recent regulatory actions by the Indonesian government—specifically the designation of LGBTQ+ culture dissemination as a non-military state threat—have created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
Reflecting on the real-world consequences, including targeted attacks against transgender individuals in nearby regions, Tegar admitted to second-guessing her ability to speak freely.
"How free we can really be in this country? It made me second-guess on how much I… can actually speak up on the kinds of issues that I have always spoken up for," she shared.
Drawing parallels between her identity as a queer individual and an Indigenous person, Tegar emphasized that both struggles share identical layers of cultural, economic, and social oppression. She expressed a deep hope for greater solidarity between queer and environmental movements, noting that bridging these parallel justice campaigns remains essential work for the future.
Future Outlook: Radical Organizing and Global Storytelling
Despite the compounding crises facing Indonesia’s ecosystems and marginalized populations, Tegar remains committed to visual storytelling and grassroots mobilization as tools for systemic change.
Artistic Resistance: Earth Defender and A Day on Earth
Through her work as a filmmaker, Tegar seeks to humanize cold statistics. Her acclaimed 2024 spoken-word music video, Earth Defender—created in collaboration with Studio Birthplace and musician Novo Amor—dramatizes the grim reality that an environmental defender loses their life every 48 hours globally. By focusing on the intimate bond between a father and child, the film transcends language and cultural barriers, fostering international empathy for communities fighting off industrial excavators with their bare bodies.
Looking ahead, Tegar is one of 50 Indigenous filmmakers contributing to A Day on Earth, a global documentary filmed simultaneously on Earth Day 2025 and slated for release in 2027—coinciding with the 32nd UN Climate Change Conference (COP). The project aims to document what the planet genuinely means to Indigenous peoples as the existential threat of climate change intensifies.
A Call for Radical Action
Ultimately, Tegar believes that traditional bureaucratic forums like UN climate summits and bilateral meetings are failing to provide adequate emergency responses or structural relief for grassroots communities. She argues that protecting ecosystems like Kalimantan requires moving beyond passive negotiations toward a dual strategy of immediate, short-term humanitarian relief and radical, long-term systemic organizing.
"One realization that I’ve had recently is that we’re not acting quite so radically enough in how we organize and in how we take action," Tegar concluded.
For the youth of Sungai Utik and Indigenous communities across Indonesia, the vision of the future remains remarkably grounded: a future that simply exists, safeguarded by those who have proven themselves to be Earth’s most enduring protectors.
