2019 fires in Indonesia were twice as bad as the government claimed, study shows

[UngulateNerd92]

• Independent researchers have identified 3.11 million hectares (7.68 million acres) of areas that were burned during Indonesia’s 2019 fires, nearly double the official government estimate.
• The new analysis used satellite imagery that was less constrained by cloud cover and smoke, and the Google Earth Engine to more efficiently identify burn scars.
• Activists have welcomed the new methodology to more accurately map burned areas, but say that government officials are likely to push back against findings that contradict the official narrative.
• David Gaveau, a co-author of the new study, was deported from Indonesia last year after publishing preliminary findings of a larger burned area than the government claimed, although officials denied the deportation was linked to the findings.

In 2019, fires raged through Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands, sparked by the deliberate burning of land for agriculture, and fanned by an El Niño system bringing drier-than-usual weather conditions. Ultimately, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry would put the total affected area at 1.64 million hectares (4.05 million acres), an area half the size of Taiwan.

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