The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) says that eighty percent of the land destroyed by forest fires in Indonesia this year will be converted into plantations, pointing the blame for the fires at unsustainable practices in the country’s agriculture industry.

“Having observed the fires flying from Banjarmasin to Palangkaraya [in Kalimantan], I’ve concluded that 80 percent of the burned off land will be reused as plantations”, BNPB head Doni Monardo was quoted as saying.

Monardo added that land already planted with palm oil, rubber and other industrial plantation produce did not catch fire, while the surrounding areas were totally burned off, some intentionally.