From Kalimantan’s haze to Jakarta’s grit: A journalist’s journey

Indonesia’s environmental challenges can feel overwhelming when taken as a whole. A country said to contain more than 17,000 islands, it holds the world’s third-largest tropical rainforest and a resource economy that has reshaped much of that landscape.

For many Indonesians, modern development is experienced not in graphs but in the air around them: childhoods spent under yellowed skies, peat smoke drifting into classrooms, the sweet-acrid smell that clings to shirts long after the fires burn out. Others recognize the shifting environment in subtler ways, like the ground growing wetter where it once stayed firm or the metallic tang in Jakarta’s air on days when pollution monitors flash red.

For Sapariah “Arie” Saturi, Mongabay Indonesia’s managing editor, these are not distant impressions. They are the texture of her early life along the Kapuas River in West Kalimantan, a region defined by peatlands, forests and the heavy footprint of timber, palm oil and mining interests.

Dry seasons in the 1990s often brought fires and a haze so thick it dulled both sound and color. Eyes burned after minutes outdoors; masks were uncommon. Children adapted because they had no choice. Arie now lives in Jakarta, where the problems are different but equally immediate.

The capital sinks a little more each year, traffic strains patience, and even a brief gust through an open window can leave a chemical scent lingering in the curtains. On weekends, she escapes to a nearby village, tending mint and chiles in rows of pots. A friend once joked...This article was originally published on Mongabay