Indonesia's fire cases: Rp5.6 trillion in final rulings, little known to be paid

Indonesia's environment ministry sued 22 companies over forest and land fires between 2015 and 2023. By August 2023, 14 of those cases had ended in final rulings worth a combined Rp5.60 trillion, according to Rasio Ridho Sani, then the ministry's director general of law enforcement, as reported by Antara. Three months later, Mongabay reported that only one company found liable in the ministry's fire suits had paid in full.

The gap between what courts order and what reaches the state is the central fact of fire accountability in Indonesia. It matters again this year. The Ministry of Forestry's SiPongi monitoring system recorded 202,004.30 hectares burned from January to July 2026, 69% more than a year earlier, according to Kompas.

This analysis sets out the documented court orders, payments, permit actions and parent companies. It relies only on court rulings, official statements and figures, and reporting that cites them. Our profile of the issue is at Forest and land fires in Indonesia.

The scale of the fires in official figures

The environment ministry, then called the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, recorded about 2.6 million hectares burned in 2015 and 1,649,258 hectares in 2019, Antara reported. SiPongi data put the 2023 total at about 1.16 million hectares, with South Kalimantan the worst hit, according to Kompas. The Ministry of Forestry reported 376,805 hectares for 2024, IDX Channel reported.

The ministry was split in October 2024 into a Ministry of Environment, which now enforces environmental law on fires, and a Ministry of Forestry, which runs SiPongi.

What the record shows: final rulings and their value

Antara's report of the August 2023 briefing listed the 14 final rulings. Seven companies were then in execution, with rulings worth Rp3.05 trillion:

• PT National Sago Prima, Kepulauan Meranti, Riau: about Rp1.07 trillion. The Supreme Court ruled in December 2018, Mongabay Indonesia reported.
• PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa, Rokan Hilir, Riau: Rp491.02 billion, upheld by the Supreme Court in 2020.
• PT Waringin Agro Jaya, Ogan Komering Ilir, South Sumatra: Rp466.46 billion, first ordered by the South Jakarta District Court in February 2017, The Jakarta Post reported.
• PT Surya Panen Subur, Nagan Raya, Aceh: Rp439.01 billion.
• PT Kallista Alam, Nagan Raya, Aceh: Rp366.06 billion over burning in the Tripa peat forest, final in August 2015, The Jakarta Post reported.
• PT Ricky Kurniawan Kertapersada, Muaro Jambi, Jambi: Rp191.80 billion, ordered by the Jambi High Court in 2017.
• PT Palmina Utama, Banjar, South Kalimantan: Rp22.29 billion.

Seven more, worth Rp2.55 trillion, were in preparation for execution: PT Rafi Kamajaya Abadi (Rp920.01 billion), PT Agro Tumbuh Gemilang Abadi (Rp590.54 billion), PT Arjuna Utama Sawit (Rp342.97 billion), PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri (Rp299.95 billion), PT Rambang Agro Jaya (Rp199.56 billion), PT Kumai Sentosa (Rp175.18 billion) and PT Kaswari Unggul (Rp25.61 billion). The Supreme Court rejected PT Rafi Kamajaya Abadi's appeal in July 2023, The Jakarta Post reported.

Other rulings sit outside that list. The Palembang High Court ordered PT Bumi Mekar Hijau to pay about Rp79 billion in August 2016, reversing a December 2015 acquittal, Mongabay reported. The Jakarta High Court upheld orders against PT Pranaindah Gemilang (Rp238.6 billion) and PT Putra Lirik Domas (Rp199.5 billion) in 2022, according to Mongabay. The Jakarta High Court upheld an order for PT Hermes Sugar Indonesia to pay Rp266.9 billion over 2023 fires in Kotawaringin Timur in October 2025, Dandapala reported. We could not confirm whether those three rulings are final.

These are civil and court findings about specific fires in specific years. A past ruling does not show that a company is responsible for any fire today.

Ordered versus paid

Public reporting shows only a few payments:

• PT Bumi Mekar Hijau paid its Rp78.5 billion in full, the only company to do so, Mongabay reported in November 2023.
• PT Kallista Alam had paid Rp57 billion, half the compensation portion, according to a ministry press release of 29 September 2023 cited by Mongabay. The ministry said restoration costs would be paid in installments.
• PT Waimusi Agroindah, ordered in 2016 to pay Rp29.6 billion, had paid Rp9 billion in installments by 2019 and agreed in March 2023 to pay the rest, Mongabay reported.
• An auction of PT Waringin Agro Jaya's assets in December 2023 recovered about Rp40 billion, less than a tenth of its ruling, an environment ministry official, Dodi Kurniawan, told Mongabay in 2025.

Those reported amounts add up to about Rp184.5 billion, a NewsWLD tally that is incomplete because later installments are not published. Mongabay, in its August 2025 investigation, put the total ordered against plantation companies at more than Rp21 trillion and wrote that almost none had been collected.

Companies have used the courts to delay. PT Ricky Kurniawan Kertapersada filed for bankruptcy in March 2023, and its filing did not list the ministry as a creditor, Mongabay Indonesia reported. Mongabay reported no payment by PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa.

Parent groups where documented

Several subsidiaries sit inside larger groups. PT Sampoerna Agro Tbk is the parent of PT National Sago Prima, Kontan reported. A ministerial statement in September 2019 identified Malaysia's TDM Berhad as the parent of PT Rafi Kamajaya Abadi, and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad as the biggest shareholder of PT Adei Plantation and Industry, Malay Mail reported. The Pelalawan District Court fined PT Adei Rp1.5 billion and ordered Rp15.1 billion in restoration over 2013 fires in a first-instance ruling in 2014, The Star reported.

Ownership does not make a parent legally liable for a subsidiary's ruling unless a court says so.

Permit actions in 2015 and sealings in 2026

In September 2015 the ministry revoked the forest concession of PT Hutani Sola Lestari and froze the plantation permits of PT Waringin Agro Jaya, PT Langgam Inti Hibrindo and PT Tempirai Palm Resources, Mongabay Indonesia reported. In October 2015 it revoked the timber plantation permits of PT Mega Alam Sentosa and PT Dyera Hutan Lestari, Mongabay Indonesia reported.

This year the Ministry of Environment has relied on sealing. It sealed PT Bintang Harapan Palma in South Sumatra after fires on about 457.85 hectares at two sites, inspected from 11 to 15 August, Katadata reported. It sealed PT Sinar Karya Mandiri in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, over a fire of about 1,500 hectares; its majority shareholder is PT Suryabumi Agrolanggeng, a subsidiary of PT Gozco Plantations Tbk, Katadata reported.

By late September the ministry had sealed 57 business entities in Sumatra and Kalimantan, 19 of them in West Kalimantan and 12 in South Sumatra. About 95% of the burned sites were oil palm plantations and almost 5% sugarcane, and 17 companies had repeat fires, Katadata reported. A seal is an enforcement step during an investigation, not a finding of liability.

The cross-border dimension

Indonesia's parliament ratified the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in September 2014, the last member to do so, Eco-Business reported. On 4 November 2026 Singapore's parliament amended its Transboundary Haze Pollution Act to make offences arrestable, raise fines for non-compliant companies tenfold and allow trials in absentia, Arab News reported.

What remains open

• Payments. The ministry has not published a running account of what each company has paid against its ruling.
• The 2026 cases. Environment Minister Jumhur Hidayat said about 335 concession holders showed fire indications and about 85,000 hectares of concessions had burned, Katadata reported. National police investigators said they were handling 96 reports against corporations covering 25.3 thousand hectares and would soon name corporate suspects, according to Katadata. None of these cases has reached a court ruling.
• Restoration. Mongabay reported in 2023 that none of the 14 companies had restored its burned land.

What to watch

• Whether the sealed companies face civil suits, criminal charges or administrative sanctions, which the ministry says it may use together under Law 32/2009.
• How the new National Peat and Mangrove Management Agency, whose leaders were inaugurated in October 2026, according to Mongabay Indonesia, divides work with the ministries.
• Whether Singapore uses its amended law against any company.

Officials named here are listed in our officials directory. Connections between companies and the issue are mapped on the intelligence page.