KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesian environmental non-governmental organisation Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI) has claimed that 21 companies linked to business groups with Malaysian ties were involved in forest and land fires in Indonesia between January and September 2026.
The findings are part of a mapping analysis report titled "Who Are Behind the Fires?" released by WALHI's National Executive.
According to the report, satellite data recorded at least 30,927 hotspots across Indonesia in the first nine months of this year, with nearly 50 per cent located within the operating concessions of oil palm plantation and forestry companies.
The regions with the highest concentrations of hotspots included West Kalimantan, with 9,529, and Central Kalimantan, with 7,141. The fires caused the Air Pollution Standard Index (ISPU) in affected areas to reach unhealthy to hazardous levels.
The analysis also found that at least 21 concession-holding companies in Indonesia with detected hotspots or fire incidents were subsidiaries of, or affiliated with, business groups originating from Malaysia.
Apart from Malaysian-linked companies, the WALHI report revealed that many other high-risk concessions were controlled by foreign capital and conglomerates with parent entities or registered shareholders in Singapore, Hong Kong and tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands and Samoa.
Meanwhile, on Oct 5, Greenpeace Indonesia and Pantau Gambut alleged that plantation companies from Malaysia and Singapore were among 20 entities linked to forest fires, based on a dataset of haze sources covering Aug 1 to Oct 1.
The report said some of the same Indonesian entities had also been identified in a 2019 report in connection with fires on land they owned.
WALHI said forest and land fires in Indonesia should not be viewed merely as technical errors or negligence by local companies holding permits.
Instead, it said the problem was structural, involving parent business groups that controlled operational policies and benefited economically from their control of the land.
The NGO called on the authorities and relevant ministries to take firm action, including reviewing permits, imposing administrative restrictions, suspending operations and revoking concession permits held by companies that repeatedly experienced fires in areas under their control.
It said the recurring pattern of hotspots across subsidiaries belonging to the same business groups showed that the fires were not isolated incidents caused by negligence among individuals on the ground.
Unity government spokesman Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil, on Oct 16, had said that no Malaysian plantation companies with oil palm concessions in Indonesia had been found to be involved in forest fires linked to the haze.
He said cross-checks with Malaysian companies showed that most of the fires observed had occurred outside concessions owned by Malaysian firms.
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