Over 60,000 hectares burned inside Merauke food estate zone
Satellite data and field reports indicate about 60,407 hectares burned inside South Papua’s Merauke food-estate zone between January and August 2026, with roughly half of provincial burn scars linked to the state-backed food…
Editor: Mursyid Sonsang
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Jakarta — Around 60,000 hectares of burned land have been identified inside the Merauke food-estate zone in South Papua between January and August 2026, based on satellite analysis by independent monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas and field observations by local civil society groups. The concentration of fires in and around the state-led development area has intensified debate over the environmental and social costs of Indonesia’s food and energy projects, even as analysts caution that spatial overlap alone does not prove the estate caused the fires.
The Merauke food-estate is part of a National Strategic Project (PSN) for food and energy development in South Papua, covering about 2.32 million hectares of planned rice, sugarcane, oil palm and related infrastructure, according to analyses drawing on the Nusantara Atlas reconstruction of government plans and civil-society research. The project involves state-owned companies and government-approved private firms but is implemented across a mosaic of concessions and recently converted non-forest zones.
Reporting by The Jakarta Post, citing Nusantara Atlas, states that approximately 60,407 hectares of land burned inside the Merauke estate area between January and August 2026, representing about one-third of the total burn scar recorded across Papua in that period. Separate analysis by the Madani Berkelanjutan Foundation estimates that indicative burned areas in South Papua reached about 95,000 hectares as of 20 August 2026, with roughly half of that area located within the Merauke food self-sufficiency project.
Earlier data from South Papua’s Environment, Forestry and Land Office put the province’s burned area at 25,838 hectares between January and July 2026, while Madani’s July-only estimate for South Papua was almost 41,800 hectares, underscoring differences in methodology and coverage.
Monitoring data and hotspots
Madani’s national analysis for January–July 2026 found 219,513 hectares of indicative burned area across Indonesia, with South Papua emerging as a major hotspot. The province recorded about 41,790 hectares of indicative burned area, nearly 89.5 percent of it in July alone, and Merauke regency accounted for 33,609 hectares, the largest figure nationwide.
Madani’s overlay of fire hotspots and concession maps in early July identified 1,292 hotspots in South Papua, of which 399 fell inside National Strategic Project concessions, including 245 in food-related areas, 115 in forest business permits and 39 in oil palm concessions.
Independent satellite monitoring cited by Mongabay and other outlets has also recorded clusters of burned areas and hotspots along newly built roads serving the food-estate program in South Papua. Researchers stress that while such spatial overlap highlights areas that warrant investigation, it does not in itself establish that road construction or plantation development caused the fires.
Local field observations
Indigenous watchdog Pusaka Bentala Rakyat reported that fires had engulfed parts of a roughly 58‑kilometre corridor associated with the Merauke food estate, running from near Wanam village in Ilwayab district toward Muting district. According to the group’s representative Ambrosius Mulait, activists conducting field observations from August to early September 2026 documented multiple fires they believed were deliberately set to clear land for rice cultivation and for the construction of a road and an airport.
WALHI Papua, an environmental NGO, has separately compiled data on forest and land fires across Papua and linked recent hotspots to the expansion of national food and energy projects. The organisation estimates that food and energy projects in South Papua cover around 2.32 million hectares and had already led to the clearing of about 40,000 hectares of natural forest by early July 2026. WALHI reports that fires in August 2026 in Merauke burned at least 116 hectares, affecting members of the Yei community and the Kwipalo clan.
Development plans and growing criticism
Civil-society groups and local communities have long opposed large-scale conversion of forest and wetlands in Merauke, arguing that the food-estate and associated sugarcane and bioethanol projects threaten customary lands and ecosystems. Rainforest Rescue, citing Nusantara Atlas data, reports that since mid‑2024 more than 40,000 hectares of rainforest, wetlands and dry forests in southern Papua have been cleared for the Merauke sugar and bioethanol project tied to the National Strategic Program.
Environmental campaigners warn that the convergence of an intense dry season, El Niño‑linked climate variability and rapid land clearing for strategic projects is increasing fire risks in peatlands and savanna mosaics across South Papua. While the available satellite and field evidence shows large burned areas within and adjacent to the food‑estate zone, responsibility for individual fires remains contested, and no comprehensive official investigation results had been published as of mid‑September 2026.
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