Orangutans at Risk As El Niño Brings Severe Wildfire Season to Indonesia

A lone figure faces down a wall of flames sweeping the slopes of Mount Bromo, a volcano that's one of Indonesia's biggest tourist attractions. For more than a week, firefighters like this have been locked in combat with this blaze. And since Saturday, officials have had to close the surrounding national park to visitors. At least nine square kilometers, two percent of the park's area, has been left in smoldering embers. As of Tuesday, there was some hope for getting this fire under better control. We hope to stop it from spreading any further today, as the hotspots have already been identified and are now being dealt with. But tourism is key to the local economy, and for many here, each day the park burns is a day of lost income. The impact of this fire is economic, because tourists cannot come while the national park is closed. In total, almost 50,000 firefighters have taken up positions against fires across Indonesia's many islands, as the powerful El Nino climate pattern brings dry, windy conditions. Nationwide, more than 1,000 square kilometers are already scorched, despite the efforts of firefighters and helicopter crews. Some authorities have even tried cloud seeding to coax rain from the dry sky. On the island of Borneo, thick haze has closed some schools. And the flames spreading through provinces here have also seen a special kind of rescue mission put into action. Wildlife rangers have been trekking through at-risk forests in search of endangered orangutans that need to be evacuated. It's an operation rescuers have pulled off during past fires on the island. But conservationists know there are always risks, even after the flames are out. We might not see it all happening at the same time, but maybe even like months after the fire season, orangutans, because they starve, they don't have enough food, their forest patches have been burned, they might enter plantations and conflict with humans, increasing also the conflict with humans. Forest fires aren't unusual in Indonesia, but this year's fires have been especially fierce. The last time El Nino affected Indonesia, in 2023, it brought fires too. But the area burnt during the first half of this year is more than double that in the same period of 2023. And it may be some time before all the blazes are out. The rest of August and September will likely see the same dry, windy conditions that have already made 2026 especially severe, bringing a serious challenge ahead for Indonesia's officials and fire crews. Andy Hsueh and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.