KLHK Claims Forest And Land Fire Areas In Indonesia Decreased 43 Percent In 2022

Illustration of extinguishing forest and land fires or forest and land fires. (Between)

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) claims that the area affected by forest and land fires (karhutla) in Indonesia will decrease by 43 percent in 2022.

"Until November 2022, we have calculated that the area of forest and land fires has decreased by 43 percent compared to 2021," said the Director General of Climate Change Control (PPI) of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Laksmi Djati, during the 'Finction at the 2022 KLHK Year End' event followed virtually from Jakarta, Thursday, December 29, as reported by Antara.

According to KLHK data, the area period for forest and land fires in 2022 has a decrease in an area of around 152,797 hectares.

Indonesia has experienced a decline in forest and land fires in recent years.

According to data from SiPongi KLHK in 2020, the affected land is 296,942 hectares. That number rose to 358,867 hectares in 2021 and fell again to 202,617 hectares this year, according to data as of November 2022.

That number is far below the area of forest and land fires that occurred in 2019 when the fire scorched 1,649,258 hectares of forest and land.

The Minister of Environment and Forestry's Senior Advisor, Efransjah, on the same occasion expressed his appreciation for the decline in the area of forest and land fires, which had a major impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"That's an extraordinary achievement. People are all silent because some places some time ago issued large emissions from forest and land fires in developed countries," said Efransjah.

For this reason, he expressed his appreciation for the action at the site level, including the prevention carried out by Manggala Agni, namely the forest and land fire control brigade under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

He also mentioned that the role of the community in efforts to prevent and control forest and land fires as one of the keys to Indonesia can reduce the number of burned areas.