JAKARTA, thekabarnews.com—President Prabowo Subianto met Dayak customary leader Panglima Jilah at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Friday, August 28, to discuss efforts to control forest and land fires (Karhutla) in West Kalimantan and increase Indigenous participation in prevention.

Panglima Jilah said the president supported the deployment of additional personnel and aerial resources to accelerate firefighting operations.

He added that the government had begun strengthening its response about a week before the meeting.

“We discussed forest and land fires. President Prabowo deployed additional personnel, and the response operation began about a week ago,” Panglima Jilah said, according to the State Secretariat.

The official statement did not specify the number of additional personnel, the type of aircraft involved or the deployment timetable.

The meeting followed Prabowo’s visit to fire-affected land in Limbung village, Kubu Raya regency, West Kalimantan, on August 22. During that visit, the president reviewed operations and spoke with residents and personnel working at the site.

Prabowo later ordered authorities to act as soon as monitoring systems detect a hotspot instead of waiting for it to develop into an open fire.

He also called for the construction of water wells in vulnerable areas to support faster suppression, according to a separate State Secretariat statement.

Panglima Jilah used the palace meeting to challenge broad claims that automatically link traditional Dayak farming to recurring wildfires.

“Farming and plantation activities sometimes take place at the same time. Traditional farmers are then blamed. However, people do not traditionally farm on peatland; they farm on mineral soil,” he said.

Panglima Jilah explained that customary communities supervise controlled burning when they prepare agricultural plots.

“When we burn a farming plot, we remain there and monitor it,” he said.

His remarks describe customary practices but do not establish the cause of any specific fire. Authorities must determine responsibility through field inspections and supporting evidence rather than general assumptions about one community.

Panglima Jilah also said customary leaders had been educating residents against careless burning.

“Indigenous communities conduct outreach through customary leaders so that people do not burn forests recklessly,” he said.

“Indigenous people are closely connected to nature. Without nature, there are no Indigenous communities. We protect it,” he added.

The meeting also covered development priorities in West Kalimantan, including schools, healthcare facilities, roads and traditional houses.

The discussion placed Indigenous participation alongside firefighting and evidence-based law enforcement. Effective prevention will depend on whether authorities translate those commitments into coordinated action before hotspots become larger fires.