A study published in Science in August 2025 revealed a paradoxical trend in global forest and land fires. Research led by a team from the University of California, Irvine, United States, found that while the total burned area worldwide has significantly decreased, the number of people exposed to wildfires has sharply increased.
According to the report, the total area burned declined by 26% between 2002 and 2021. However, during the same period, the number of individuals exposed to fires rose by nearly 40%.
The study further noted that this increase is largely driven by the growing overlap between human settlements and fire-prone landscapes. In other words, more people are building homes in areas that are naturally vulnerable to wildfires.
Responding to this phenomenon, Fiqri Ardiansyah, a lecturer at the Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Gadjah Mada (Forestry UGM), explained that similar trends are also occurring in Indonesia.
Based on his observations, forest fire occurrences in Indonesia also declined by the end of 2023. He explained that the rising number of affected populations in Indonesia is due to the same reasons, such as economic pressures, land demand for agriculture, and settlement expansion.
Ardiansyah illustrated this with the example of degraded peatlands converted into community housing. During El Niño events, such areas become highly susceptible to fire.
“As a result, residents living there are directly exposed to flames. This explains why the burned land area is decreasing while the impact on populations continues to increase,” he said on Tuesday (Sep. 9).
Nevertheless, Ardiansyah emphasized that mitigation efforts are ongoing. He mentioned that early warning system technologies for predicting forest fires are already in place.
Monitoring is also being conducted by the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), the National Disaster Management Authority (BNPB), and Manggala Agni, with community involvement through initiatives such as Masyarakat Peduli Api (Community Fire Awareness) and Desa Tangguh Bencana (Disaster-Resilient Villages).
“All these monitoring efforts aim to minimize the use of fire, which is often the main cause of forest fires,” he explained.
As a follow-up, Ardiansyah recommended intensifying educational outreach by engaging community leaders as key figures. According to him, these leaders are more likely to be heard, making messages to discourage burning more effective.
He also stressed the importance of conducting land mapping to determine ownership, land use, and whether the areas are located in disaster-prone zones.
Author: Aldi Firmansyah
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Rajendra Arya
Illustration: Bisnis.com