Tanam Match Season, West Bangka Regency Government Warning Its Residents Don't Open Land By Fire

BABEL - The West Bangka Regency Government invites residents to play an active role in preventing possible forest and land fires (karhutla).

"Based on BMKG information, in the next few days the rainfall will begin to decrease and tend to be low. If this condition is not anticipated properly, it can increase the chances of forest and land fires," said Head of Satpol PP and Damkar West Bangka Regency Sidharta Gautama in Mentok, Bangka Belitung Islands Province (Babel), Friday 10 February, confiscated by Antara.

The potential for forest and land fires is still possible because at times like this, some residents want to clear land for planting crops.

The tradition of clearing land by burning is still common in the area because it is considered cheaper and faster.

"This habit is often the cause of forest and land fires," he said.

To anticipate this, in addition to giving an appeal to residents not to burn land, his party has also formed a volunteer team in each village to provide socialization and education to the community.

The officers since early February 2023 have made a schedule for socialization and education to reduce the habit of people clearing land by burning.

The recommended way to clear land is to use heavy equipment and other simple tools, but this method cannot be applied to all residents, especially those who are unable to afford it, so a good and wise solution is needed so that residents can still open land for gardening and farming.

"It is impossible for us to force residents to be unable to rent heavy equipment, for that we make a policy that we can clear land by burning, but there are several requirements," he said.

In this policy, the maximum limit for land that can be burned is one hectare and residents are prohibited from burning land at night.

In addition, residents are also required to first clean the surroundings of the land so that the fire does not spread to the surrounding land.

He hopes that the approach pattern to the community can reduce the risk of land and forest fires at large and the community can still grow crops.

This increase in awareness of the potential for forest and land fires was carried out by the West Bangka Regency Government following up on early warnings issued by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) regarding the potential for forest and land fires in several provinces, including Jambi, Bengkulu, Bangka Belitung, South Sumatra, Lampung and West Kalimantan.