By Hafid Abbas
Former Commissioner and Eighth Chairperson of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (2012–2017)
Indonesia’s recurring forest and peatland fires are no longer merely a domestic environmental problem. They constitute a regional public health emergency, a human rights concern and a fundamental test of whether governments can hold corporations accountable for environmental harm that transcends national borders.
Every year, fires across Sumatra and Kalimantan destroy forests, degrade peatlands and release toxic smoke into the atmosphere. Millions of people are exposed to hazardous air pollution, including communities in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia. Yet behind this recurring crisis lies a fundamental question: who benefits economically from the exploitation of Indonesia’s natural resources, and who bears responsibility when those activities endanger human lives?
Recent findings by Greenpeace Indonesia, Greenpeace Malaysia and Pantau Gambut offer important evidence.
In a joint report released on October 5, 2026, the organisations identified corporate entities connected to Indonesian concessions where fire hotspots were detected. Among them were at least four concessions associated with Singapore-based business groups, including those linked to Bumitama Agri, First Resources and First Borneo Plantations.
These findings do not establish that the parent companies themselves started the fires. However, they raise legitimate questions about corporate ownership, operational control, environmental supervision and responsibility across complex business structures.
The scale of the problem is alarming. Between August 8 and September 20, 2026, the organisations identified 5,540 fire-source points. Of these, 859 were detected within 115 forest-utilisation concessions and 774 within 210 oil-palm plantation concessions. Some 2,211 points occurred in areas that had repeatedly experienced fires between 2015 and 2023.
The human consequences are equally serious. Greenpeace estimates that long-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution from peatland fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan is associated with approximately 33,100 premature adult deaths and 2,900 infant deaths annually. Its 2026 findings also indicate thousands of additional hospitalisations and hundreds of thousands of severe asthma attacks among Indonesian children.
These figures demand more than environmental commitments. They demand accountability.
Corporate responsibility cannot stop at national borders
A significant development came on October 23, 2026, when Singapore’s National Environment Agency announced that it had issued notices under its Transboundary Haze Pollution Act to ten Singapore-registered companies in the palm-oil and forestry sectors. These included Bumitama Agri, First Resources, Wilmar International, Golden Agri International, Asia Pulp & Paper and Indofood Agri Resources.
The notices seek information about corporate relationships, Indonesian concessions, fire-prevention measures and firefighting activities. They are investigative measures, not judicial findings of guilt. Nevertheless, they demonstrate an important principle: companies cannot automatically escape scrutiny because their commercial operations and corporate structures extend across different jurisdictions.
Singapore has an opportunity to demonstrate that environmental responsibility applies not only to activities within its territory but also to the overseas operations of companies domiciled under its jurisdiction.
Corporate nationality must never become a shield against accountability.
Clean air is a human right
The haze crisis must also be examined through the international human rights framework. In October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council recognised the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment through Resolution 48/13. This recognition was reaffirmed by the UN General Assembly in July 2022 through Resolution 76/300.
Forest fires and toxic haze threaten fundamental rights, including the rights to life, health and a safe environment. Children, older people, Indigenous communities, plantation workers and economically disadvantaged households are particularly vulnerable.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights establish that businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights, conduct due diligence and prevent or mitigate adverse impacts associated with their operations.
This responsibility should not disappear when companies operate through subsidiaries or affiliates in another country.
The relevant questions are straight forward: who controls the land, who directs the operations, who benefits financially, and who knew or should have known about the environmental risks? These questions require independent investigation and transparent answers.
From ASEAN cooperation to regional accountability
Despite decades of regional discussions, the haze crisis continues. The 2002 ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution provides a framework for cooperation, but cooperation must produce measurable improvements in environmental protection and public health.
Indonesia must strengthen enforcement against companies operating within its territory, investigate recurring fires, restore degraded peatlands and ensure that affected communities have access to health protection, information and effective remedies.
Singapore should fully utilise its legal instruments to investigate companies registered under its jurisdiction whose Indonesian operations may be connected to transboundary haze. Malaysia should also support evidence-based regional accountability.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment could further contribute by examining the human rights implications of the 2026 fires, alongside relevant UN mandates on health and business and human rights.
The objective is not to blame particular countries or condemn an entire business sector. It is to establish the facts, identify those responsible and ensure that affected communities receive justice.
Indonesia’s forests are a national treasure, but their protection is also a regional responsibility. Economic development cannot be measured solely through plantation expansion, commodity exports or corporate profits while millions of people bear the health consequences.
Ultimately, the haze crisis challenges ASEAN to move beyond diplomatic solidarity towards shared responsibility and enforceable accountability. The right to breathe clean air must not become the price society pays for corporate profit.
Environmental justice demands that accountability follow the evidence, regardless of where a corporation is headquartered or where its profits ultimately go.
Fiat justitia ruat caelum – “Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.”
