Preventing Forest Fires

· 3 minutes read

The forest fires we were worried about have struck again. In the current dry season, there have been peatland fires in Riau and forest fires in Kalimantan.

No less than President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo specifically reminded the relevant officials to prevent forest fires from recurring. The President also reminded provincial police chiefs and regional military commanders to be serious about controlling forest fires or they risk re-assignment.

Every year forest fires always occur in several regions, usually in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Records in Kompas daily archives show that as far back as 1961 forest fires occurred in a forest area near Palembang and caused the capital of South Sumatra province to be shrouded in thick smoke.
Forest fires cause disadvantages to both local people who suffer the direct impact and people nationally. Losses resulting from forest fires in 2015 are estimated at trillions of rupiah. Communities living around the forest fires are forced to breathe air mixed with smoke, which has an impact on health, especially in pregnant women, toddlers and elderly people. Smoke from forest fires is known to cause premature death.
ANTARA FOTO/RONY MUHARRMAN
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya (second right) reviews fire management efforts on Tuesday (13/8/2019) in Langgam district, Pelalawan regency, Riau, accompanied by National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian (right), Indonesian Military commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto (second left) and Pelalawan Regent H.M. Harris (left). The ministry made the visit to inspect the management of forest and peatland fires in the area.
Forest fires mean the loss of biodiversity in a particular area, which may be endemic and whose benefits are still unknown. Forest fires in the Tesso Nilo National Park, Riau, currently threaten the habitat of Sumatran elephants. The economic potential of tourism is also declining and Indonesia will have difficulty entering developed markets that impose environmentally friendly requirements on their imported products.
Losses also occur when smoke disrupts neighboring countries, such as the 2013 and 2015 forest fires that plagued Singapore and Malaysia. In 2015 President Jokowi cut his visit to the United States because of severe fires that struck Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Prevention is always better than putting out a forest fire. Various lessons from forest fires should ensure that all stakeholders, ranging from the central government, regional administrations and other institutions to plantation owners and local communities, jointly work to be better prepared, especially now that the dry season is classified as very dry.To successfully prevent forest fires, all parties must first agree on the main causes and the other causes. At present stakeholders, including the government, have not yet agreed whether the fires are triggered by natural causes, deliberately set by plantation owners to expand the planting area, result from burning as part of farming methods, other causes or a combination of them all. As long as the identification of causes is not yet complete, forest fires are likely to occur because of the wrong prevention methods.
KOMPAS/DIONISIUS REYNALDO TRIWIBOWO
A boy rides a bicycle past a gas truck on Monday (5/8/2019) along Jl. Mahir-Mahar in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, where a fire has been burning for the past month. Fires have been burning near residential areas and along major roads in Palangkaraya, flaring up again even after they have been extinguished.
With forest and land fires re-occurring, we hope that in the future prevention will become the primary duty of institutions that are responsible for preventing forest and land fires. There must be strict sanctions against violators of land clearing regulations and the authorities must be held accountable to deal with it.

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