Jokowi: Indonesia Has Experience And Knowledge Of Disasters, Becomes An Important World Lesson

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Screenshot of Youtube @SecretariatPresident)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo invites global countries to make efforts for resilience or the ability to face sustainable disasters together.

He conveyed this at the opening of The 7th Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) 2022 at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC), Badung Regency, Bali.

"This time, the Indonesian government is offering the world the concept of sustainable resilience as a solution to address the challenges of systemic risk, dealing with all forms of disaster, including facing a pandemic, and at the same time supporting the implementation of sustainable development," Jokowi said as seen on the Presidential Secretariat's Youtube video, Wednesday, May 25.

According to Jokowi, disaster risk reduction is an effective investment to prevent future losses. He continued, resilience and preparedness for disasters will determine the number of losses that must be borne due to disasters.

Therefore, Jokowi emphasized that Indonesia is committed to implementing international commitments. Jokowi also said that Indonesia has experience and knowledge that will be shared in disaster mitigation.

"As a disaster-prone country, Indonesia has accumulated knowledge and experience that can be an important lesson for the world, but Indonesia is also eager to learn from international experience," said Jokowi.

On that occasion, Jokowi also explained the many disasters that occurred in Indonesia. In 2022, as of May 23, there have been 1,613 disasters. In a month, an average of 500 small and large scale earthquakes occur. With 131 active volcanoes, volcanic eruptions also threaten Indonesian society.

Then, Jokowi also said that forest and land fires were a serious threat. The forest and land fires in 1997-1998 were the largest ever experienced by Indonesia, scorching more than 10 million hectares of land spread across Indonesia.

However, Jokowi said that currently the government has implemented mitigation. "With various efforts, forest and land fires can be suppressed to a minimum and by 2021 Indonesia has succeeded in restoring 3.4 million hectares of peatland, maintaining and revitalizing mangrove forests which cover more than 20 percent of the world's total mangrove area of around 3.3 million hectares. , and Indonesia has also succeeded in reducing forest fires from 2.6 million hectares to only 358 thousand hectares in 2021," he explained.