JAKARTA - The Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Indonesia has recorded seven main points where the water level of the peat is very vulnerable to forest and land fires, namely less than 80 centimeters from the ground surface.
Minister of LH Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said that Riau Province has peat almost half of its land area, making it a very vulnerable area to karhutla.
"This potential drought will be exacerbated in areas with peat swamp mangrove dominance. With just one lighter, forest and land fires will occur with heavy and large. For this reason, early readiness is increasingly requested," he said.
Moreover, he continued, this year's rainfall is projected to be the lowest in the past 30 years, namely 100 millimeters. In 1996-1997, it was precisely an extraordinary fire with hundreds to millions of hectares of forest being burned and causing considerable losses.
Therefore, he asked for the readiness of the Manggala Agni Forest Fire Control Center and the firefighting team from PT PHR, the Indonesian Palm Oil Entrepreneur Association (GAPKI), and the Indonesian Forest Entrepreneur Association (APHI). In this case, to take steps to overcome karhutla.
"I really hope that this activity does not stop at just a ceremonial measure. We really need to take tactical operational planning steps by increasing meetings at the grassroots level led by the mayor and regent in their respective places," he said.
This is to detail map the locations that have the potential for forest fires in locations where the peat water surface is decreasing sharply. Even in locations that cannot be monitored by the peat water level so that they have no control in handling forest fires.
He also asked that the fire-conscious community be reactivated in vulnerable areas. The reason is that the more monitoring points that are built, the more forest and land fires can be anticipated as much as possible.
"For this reason, in areas that are prone, I want to encourage business owners who have concessions, whether in the field of forestry or palm oil plantation concessions, which we know that Riau has very large palm oil plantations, to encourage concession owners to activate the formation of fire brigades and fire-conscious communities in vulnerable areas," he said.
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