Forest fire is one of the biggest problems and threats in the world, especially in Indonesia which has not been resolved yet. In general, the causes of fires can be divided into two – naturally caused and human caused. Natural fires are generally triggered by lightning, volcanic activities such as eruptions and lava flow, or friction between trees that can cause sparks. Forest fires caused by natural factors are rarely happened in Indonesia because of its tropical rainforests.

On the other hand, human-caused fires can be due to any number of reasons, whether intentional or unintentional. Accidental fires are usually caused by carelessness or inattention by campers, hikers, or others travelling through wildland or by debris and garbage burners. These fires often happen in mountain forests, for example that occured at Mount Sindoro and Mount Muria in 2015. Meanwhile, intentional fires are caused by land clearing. Clearing land by burning forests is the most common ways conducted by individuals and companies. According to them, burning forests are convenient and low-budget ways to convert land into oil palm plantations, rubber plantations, and other farmlands. In Indonesia itself, almost 99% of forest fires are caused by human activities either intentionally or unintentionally.

In Indonesia's history, one of the greatest forest fires occurred in 1997-1998. At that time, forest fires were caused mainly by slash and burn technique adopted by farmers in Indonesia. Slash and burn has been extensively used for many years to clear the lands for traditional agriculture. During the fire season, dry fuels readily ignite and leads to large wild fires. In recent years, large-scale land use change in Indonesia, specially on the islands of Borneo and Sumatera, mean that El Nino is increasingly associated with massive forest fires that spread a choking haze and economic concerns across Southeast Asia. By the time 1997-1998 forest fires were finally over some 9.7 million hectares of land had burned. The consequences of this disaster were estimated to have released between 0.81-2.57 gigatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, approximately 13-40% of the annual carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. Losses due to this incident are estimated to be 60 trillion rupiahs. This figure excludes a number of damages that are difficult to measure or to value in monetary terms, such as long term health impacts, losses of human life and biodiversity.

After 17 years have passed, enormous forest fires occurred again in Indonesia in 2015. This could be called as one of the worst and longest fires in history because El Nino caused Indonesia's condition was more dry than usual. This phenomenon was a combination of illegal logging and El Nino which has caused the fires became widespread and uncontrollable. This happened on the islands of Sumatera and Borneo with the most severe locations were in Riau, Jambi, South Sumatera, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, and Southeast Kalimantan. Indonesia suffered financial loss of up to 221 trillion rupiahs. The loss was higher than the previous case in 1997-1998. That amount excludes health, education, germplasm, carbon emissions, and other impacts. Furthermore, 24 people died, more than 600.000 people infected Acute Respiratory Infections, 60 million people were exposed to air pollution, and 2.61 million hectares of land were burned. Not only damaged Indonesia, but this fire also affected  neighbouring countries, spreading thick clouds to smoke and haze to several Malaysia and Singapore. Due to this case, some companies, mostly palm oil companies, are accused of being responsible for the illegal burning, while some other companies are still under investigation.

Those two worst cases of forest fires in Indonesia remind us that actually the damages that occurs in the environment are mostly caused by human. Whereas, the damages incurred from forest fires, for instance the losses of financial, health, economic, and ecological will ultimately bring negative impacts on human itself. Recently, forest fires are still occurring in Indonesia, eventhough the intensity is not as severe as the previous ones. As it is currently happening in Riau Province that there are about 1,646 hectares of land were burned during the first four months of 2018 and also the ongoing forest fires in other provinces. Although the government has taken various strategic steps to reduce the occurrence of forest fires for the future, but individuals and companies are still destroying forest for their own interests. This demonstrates that human are still have less attention and awareness to protect the environment, particularly forest which is the most important part for the sustainability of our lives. Therefore, the most important thing is to raise awareness and willingness of all elements of society to maintain and take care of forest as the lungs of the Mother Earth. As Mahatma Gandhi said "What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another".