As fires spread, Indonesia’s rubber growers draw on traditional ways to fight back
PENUKAL ABAB LEMATANG ILIR, Indonesia — Sumanti raced her motorcycle past the rubber trees as flames spread through the dry brush. No one had picked up the phone as the wildfire continued to grow out of control on Sept. 5. “The fire is already approaching our land,” Sumanti, 30, cried out as she drove past […]
PENUKAL ABAB LEMATANG ILIR, Indonesia — Sumanti, a 30-year-old resident of Talang Turunan Gajah, a village in South Sumatra, raced her motorcycle through the rubber trees as a wildfire engulfed the dry brush. Panic-stricken, she shouted to a passerby that the fire was rapidly approaching their land. Within half an hour, Sumanti's family of four had gathered around the flames, armed with 35-liter canisters of water and a sprayer typically used to distribute fertilizer.
The family worked tirelessly, hosing down the flames for two hours in an attempt to contain the blaze. However, the fire continued to spread, fueled by the Paye, a crucial water source found in the surrounding forests and plantations, which had already dried up. Sumanti's community is one of six families in the region that rely on rubber tree cultivation and latex production, placing them in the path of a wildfire crisis exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon.
The smoke from Indonesia's wildfires has crossed borders, enveloping Malaysia and Singapore in a haze of environmental concern.
Written by urgent.news from Mongabay's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
