El Niño-Driven Fires Kill Orangutan, Destroy Tens of Thousands of Reforestation Saplings in West Kalimantan

An exceptionally strong El Niño drought has driven severe peatland and forest fires across Indonesian Borneo through September 2026, with West Kalimantan among the hardest hit. Fires reached Gunung Palung National Park — historic home to roughly 2,500 orangutans — burning an estimated 9,055 hectares (22,000 acres) and destroying nearly 70,000 tree saplings planted under forest-restoration efforts by the Gunung Palung National Park Agency, ASRI, and local communities. In the nearby Sungai Paduan Protected Forest, about 49% of the area had burned by September 11. An adult male Bornean orangutan, Sempurna, was found in acute respiratory distress near an oil-palm plantation in Ketapang on August 30/September 1 and died despite emergency treatment; a necropsy attributed death to smoke-induced acute hypoxia and lung damage. At least 21 orangutans had been rescued by local responders, BKSDA West Kalimantan, and YIARI as of September 16. Researchers (Boston University's Cheryl Knott; Geopix) reported roughly 79% of detected 2026 Kalimantan hotspots fell within mapped orangutan habitat, underscoring the fires' compounding threat to both wildlife and years of restoration investment in the region.