Peatland fire in Bungo regency as seen from a Jambi Disaster Mitigation Agency Bolkow 105 helicopter, Sunday (27/8). Even though a regional regulation includes a ban on the use of fire, many cases of clearing land by burning still occur.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Forest and peatland fires continue to crop up. However, the government’s forest fire prevention efforts have been deemed effective in halting the fires from spreading across large areas and causing haze. Anticipatory measures by deploying integrated teams and local communities are deemed effective in preventing larger-scale disasters.
For instance, no haze has been reported in Riau through Sunday (27/8/2017). Since January, the Air Quality Index has not touched unhealthy levels, let alone the hazardous or extremely hazardous levels like it did in 2015. Conditions regarding forest and peatland fires were deemed better than they were in the dry season of 2016.
“We are grateful that Riau has been able to curb forest fires. This is thanks to well-coordinated cooperation between relevant parties, including the central and local governments as well as the military, police, local communities and companies. There is still a month to go in monitoring. We will be watchful,” said Riau disaster mitigation agency (BPBD) head Jim Gofur.
Taking lessons from the forest and peatland fires of 2015, the Riau administration formed the Forest and Peatland Firefighting Task Force, which involve all relevant stakeholders. The task force manages fire prevention and firefighting efforts.
On January 24 this year, the Riau governor put the entire province on a Forest and PeatlandFire Disaster Alert status, which will be in effect until November 30. With the provincial administration on alert, the task force can begin working earlier.
Structured
The task force is highly structured from the provincial level down to the regency and municipality levels. At the provincial level, the task force is chaired by the Wirabima 031 military resort commander. In regencies and municipalities, the task force is chaired by either district military commanders or city police chiefs. The task force is then organized down to the level of district military commands (koramil) or police precincts, and to village supervisory non-commissioned officers (Babinsa) or village-appointed police officers (Bhabinkamtibmas) in villages.
As a result, compared to conditions in 2016, significantly fewer fire-affected areas were experienced in 2017. Riau BPBD data shows that fires affected 3,218 hectares between January and August of 2016. In the same period this year, fire affected only 967 hectares. This is a decrease of 70 percent.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief Willem Rampangilei recently said that Riau’s disaster prevention effort is the best nationwide. Riau has set an example for other regions in Indonesia.
The haze disasters in 2015 and 2016 have also provided valuable lessons for the South Sumatra provincial government, in that forest and peatland fires should be the responsibility of all relevant parties. This is why, the province was put on Haze Disaster Alert in early 2017. Some 7,999 people, including 3,350 farmers in Fire-Aware Farmers Groups (KTPA) and 994 local residents in Fire-Aware Communities (MPA), are involved in the efforts to curb forest and peatland fires.
“The KTPA and MPA serve to improve people’s awareness on not clearing land by burning. They also conduct 24-hour hotspot monitoring, both through satellite imaging and directly in the field. They also put out fires,” South Sumatra BPBD chief Iriansyah said in Palembang.
All these activities, Iriansyah said, resulted in the diminished severity of forest and peatland fires between January and August this year compared to those in 2015 and 2016. As of 23 August, only 505 hotspots have been found in South Sumatra, fewer than the 593 found in 2016 and 2,099 in 2015.
The construction of drilled wells has also helped in preventing fires from spreading across peatlands. “In places that have no water, drilled wells have played a significant role in providing water to dampen the land and to put out fires,” Peatland Restoration Agency head Nazir Foead said in Jakarta.
The peatland restoration program of establishing culverts, Jambi forestry office head Irmansyah said, was also effective in preventing peatland fires. Three fire-prone peatland areas, Muaro Jambi, East Tanjung Jabung and West Tanjung Jabung, were still wet and fire-free as of August.
Staying alert
In anticipation of the threat of forest and peatland fires in the next two months, the Environment and Forestry Ministry has urged all field teams to stay alert. The frequency of routine integrated patrols, including air patrols, must be increased, especially in fire-prone areas.
The ministry’s director of forest and peatland fires, Raffles B Pandjaitan, has instructed all Manggala Agni forest firefighting teams to be on full alert.
Up to Sunday, peatland fires have been found in several locations. Monitoring in the last 24 hours by the Aqua, Terra and SNNP satellites from the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space’s (Lapan’s) MODIS Catalog, according to the medium resolution (30-79 percent) report on Sunday (27/8) at 7:30 a.m. Jakarta time, there were 42 hotspots in Papua, 31 hotspots in East Nusa Tenggara, 12 hotspots each in East Java, Maluku, Riau and West Java.
Monitoring at high resolution (above 80 percent) found 21 hotspots in East Nusa Tenggara, 13 hotspots in Papua and seven hotspots in East Java.
A study shows that between 80 percent and 90 percent of forest and peatland fires were caused by intentional fires set either by farmers clearing land or by illegal loggers. The rest is triggered by weather and other causes.
“Burning is usually done at night, as a way to repel mosquitos or by lighting long ropes that burn slowly and thrown into forest areas,” BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
