Mahfud's Claim About The Reduction Of Forest Fires Does Not Match KLHK's Data

Mahfud MD at Kemenkopolhukam Office (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD claims that since President Joko Widodo's leadership, the number of forest and land fires (karhutla) has continued to decline from year to year.

In fact, at the beginning of President Jokowi's presidency, forest and land fires disturbed neighboring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia and launched protests.

As for the countries with forest and land fire problems that Mahfud meant were Australia, Canada, Russia and Brazil. For Australia, it is known that this kangaroo country has just been hit by a great forest fire which had received the spotlight.

"Since Pak Jokowi became president it has been resolved until now. Our (figures) have improved over the years and from countries with forest and land fire problems, Indonesia is actually the least amount of land burned," Mahfud told reporters at the Kemenkopolhukam Office, Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, Wednesday, February 5.

"Alhamdulillah, we continue to improve from time to time and the handling is led directly by the President," he said finishing his statement.

Doesn't match the data

Mahfud may claim that forest and land fires in the era of President Jokowi's administration continued to improve. However, Mahfud's claim contradicts the recapitulation data we collected from sipongi.menlhk.go.id. The data noted that from 2014 to 2019, the area of forest fires had actually increased.

In 2014, based on Sipongi data, forest and land fires in Indonesia reached 44,4111.36 hectares and increased in 2015 to 2,611,411.44 hectares. The area of forest and land fires decreased in 2016, namely 438,363.19 hectares and then decreased again in the following year to reach 165,483.92 hectares.

Even though it decreased in 2016-2017, in fact, based on Sipongi data in 2018 the distribution of forest and land fires has increased again to 529,2666.64 hectares and has increased again in 2019 to reach 1,592,010 hectares.

From this data, in 2019, South Sumatra was the largest area affected by forest and land fires, reaching 328,457 hectares.

Furthermore, Central Kalimantan is also listed as an area affected by forest and land fires with an area of 328,457 hectares. Then, followed by West Kalimantan with an area of 151,070 hectares, South Kalimantan with an area of 136,428 hectares, and Papua with an area of 104,981 hectares.