BNPB Ensures Forest and Forestry Smoke Does Not Disrupt Neighboring Countries

ILLUSTRATION OF DOC BETWEEN

PALEMBANG - Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Lt. Gen. TNI Suharyanto, confirmed that the smoke from the effects of forest and land fires would not disturb the territory of neighboring countries.

Lt. Gen. National Military (TNI) Suharyanto said that some time ago, in the media from Singapore there was some concern that the forest and land fire incident in 2019 would happen again, because they mentioned the existence of dozens of hotspots in Indonesia.

Hearing this, BNPB immediately confirmed that all regions, especially the provinces, were priorities for handling forest and land fires, namely West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Jambi, Riau and South Sumatra.

"After checking these six areas, a fire did occur. "However, I assure you that today, the smoke from forest and land fires in Indonesia will not disturb neighboring countries," he said as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, September 12.

Apart from that, he said, BNPB also always tries throughout the dry season to control forest and land fires in Indonesia.

He explained the long-term strategy for dealing with forest and land fires, by continuously wetting the land, and also if a fire occurs, immediately extinguishing it and ensuring that the fire does not appear again.

Then, the Health Service prepared a post if smoke from forest and land fires had an impact on people's health.

"Based on reviews carried out, land cultivated by the community tends to be safe from fire, but abandoned land is vulnerable. "Therefore, I will convey this to the Ministry of Environment and Hygiene (KLHK), and determine a long-term strategy for handling forest and land fires," he explained.

Based on the KLHK report, the area of ​​forest and land fires in Indonesia from January to mid-June 2023 reached 28,019 hectares and released 2.84 million carbon dioxide emissions.

The five provinces with the highest forest and land fires are East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), reaching 5,211 hectares, West Kalimantan covering 4,172 hectares, Lampung covering 2,272 hectares, Southeast Sulawesi covering 1,961 hectares, and Maluku covering 1,953 hectares.