Rescuers race against time as fires ravage orangutan habitat inside Indonesian oil palm concession

Conservationists are frantically attempting to rescue orangutans from a fire-ravaged peat-swamp forest situated within an RSPO-certified oil palm concession in West Kalimantan. Smoke continues to billow and the ground remains dangerously hot. The 657-hectare forest, identified as a High Conservation Value (HCV) area within PT Kayung Agro Lestari (KAL), is home to approximately 60 Bornean orangutans, the sole orangutan species native to the Indonesian island of Borneo.

The forest was utilized in October 2015 to release four orangutans rescued by the Borneo-based NGO, Yayasan International Animal Rescue Indonesia (YIARI). Nearly 11 years later, the very peat-swamp forest that served as their habitat has been almost entirely devastated by fire, according to satellite analysis conducted by technology consultancy TheTreeMap.

An animation prepared by TheTreeMap illustrates the progression of fires within and around the PT Kayung Agro Lestari concession in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, from August 8 to September 12, 2026. The sequence reveals how fires progressively consumed the HCV forests, transforming from dark green to dark red over several weeks. The analysis indicates that one of the major fires ignited on August 8 along a canal at the edge of the oil palm plantation in Ketapang district, subsequently spreading westward into the HCV forest.

A team of conservationists, comprising staff from YIARI, is now racing to rescue any orangutans still trapped within the scorched remains of their once-protective habitat.