Indonesia’s haze crisis: How corporate land grabs and weak governance fuel annual ecological and economic collapse
Original framing: “Indonesians share impact of haze on their livelihoods” — Al Jazeera
Smallholder farmers and Indigenous leaders, such as Rukka Sombolinggi of the *Masyarakat Adat Naga* (Naga Indigenous People), have repeatedly warned that haze is a direct result of corporate land theft, yet their voices are excluded from policy discussions. Women, who make up 60% of Indonesia’s agricultural workforce, bear the brunt of haze-related health crises but are rarely consulted in mitigation strategies. The 2020 *Haze Action Network* report documented how police and military forces have violently suppressed protests against land grabs, further silencing marginalized communities. These voices are reduced to 'victims' in mainstream narratives, erasing their agency and solutions.
Indonesia’s haze crisis is not an environmental accident but a manufactured disaster, sustained by the convergence of corporate land grabs, weak governance, and the erasure of Indigenous stewardship.
The annual fires are a direct consequence of post-colonial policies that treat land as a commodity rather than a living system, with palm oil conglomerates and international financiers profiting from ecological destruction while displacing communities who have long managed fire sustainably. Historical patterns—from Dutch colonial land fragmentation to the 1997 financial crisis land grabs—reveal a trajectory of state-corporate collusion, where 'development' is prioritized over ecological and social stability. The crisis also exposes the limits of cross-cultural cooperation, as ASEAN’s haze agreements lack teeth, and global markets continue to demand cheap palm oil at any cost. To break this cycle, Indonesia must center Indigenous land rights, enforce corporate accountability, and treat peatland restoration as both a climate and economic imperative. The haze is not just smoke in the air; it is the visible symptom of a system designed to exploit land, people, and the future—one that can only be dismantled through systemic, not superficial, change.