JAKARTA — Two palm oil companies embroiled in a long-running land dispute with an Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo have resumed the clearing of rainforest and other land to expand their plantations for the first time in more than a decade. In June 2025, the Indigenous Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae reported that the two companies — PT Borneo Surya Mining Jaya (BSMJ), owned by Singapore-listed First Resources, and PT Munte Waniq Jaya Perkasa (MWJP), a subsidiary of Malaysia-owned TSH Resources — had restarted land clearing and evictions in what the community says is its ancestral territory. The latest activities mark a new chapter in one of Indonesia’s highest-profile land conflicts involving the palm oil industry, which Mongabay covered in an in-depth report in 2015. Eviction activity using heavy equipment by PT BSMJ as of 2 June 2026 (c) Kaoem Telapak The dispute dates back to 2011-2012, when BSMJ and MWJP began bulldozing rainforest in an area claimed by Muara Tae, a village in West Kutai district, East Kalimantan province. The companies say they bought leasehold rights from residents of Muara Ponaq, a village next to Muara Tae. But Muara Tae has contended the companies colluded with individuals in Muara Ponaq who fraudulently signed away hundreds of hectares of Muara Tae’s communally held land, in exchange for hundreds of millions of rupiah. The district government facilitated the transactions by redrawing the Tae-Ponaq border, increasing the latter’s territory at the expense of the former. The district chief at the time,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

JAKARTA — Indonesia has recorded more fire hotspot activity by late July 2026 than at the same point in any previous year, including during the devastating fire seasons of 2019 and 2023, according to new data. Data from FireWatch, a new satellite monitoring platform developed by the forest monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, offers the clearest picture yet of where the country is burning, say scientists. It has raised fresh concerns as Indonesia heads into the months of the year when wildfires historically intensify. As of July 27, FireWatch detected more than 96,000 fire hotspots across Indonesia — more than at the same point in any previous year monitored by the platform. By comparison, about 88,000 hotspots had been detected by late July 2019 and roughly 58,000 during the same period in 2023. Hotspot comparison between 2026, 2023 and 2019. Image courtesy of FireWatch. Those two years produced Indonesia’s most destructive fire seasons in the past 10 years, burning more than 2.6 million hectares (6.4 million acres) and 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres), respectively, according to data from FireWatch. FireWatch estimates that approximately 103,000 hectares (255,000 acres) burned nationwide during the first half of 2026. Burned area comparison between 2026, 2023 and 2019. Image courtesy of FireWatch. While that remains far below the area burned in 2019, Indonesia has yet to enter the period when fire activity historically accelerates. Burning typically increases in August before peaking in September and October. The unusually high hotspot activity in 2026 comes as forecasters…This article was originally published on Mongabay