Jokowi: 99 Percent Of Forest Fires Are Man-made

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Twitter @jokowi)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has asked that law enforcement for perpetrators of forest burning must be firm and uncompromising. This is done in an effort to solve the problem of forest fires, which are 99 percent caused by human activity.

"We know that 99 percent of forest fires occur due to human activity, whether intentional or negligent. Therefore, law enforcement must be firm and uncompromising to resolve this problem," Jokowi said when opening a limited meeting on anticipating forest and land fires at the Merdeka Palace. , Jakarta, Tuesday, June 23.

He also asked that the handling of forest and land fires must be done optimally. He reminded that the small fire that burns the forest must be extinguished immediately.

"Don't let the fire get bigger and then we extinguish it. As small as possible the new fire must be responsive," he said, adding that he had asked regional heads and other parties to respond quickly to the problem of forest fires.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta said that a number of areas prone to forest fires still have time to prepare for one month.

This is because, based on a report from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), most of the areas that are prone to forest and land fires will enter the dry season in August.

Thus, this available time must be utilized properly to carry out field management in coordination and consolidation.

Jokowi said, in an effort to fight forest and land fires, the use of technology to improve monitoring and surveillance must be increased. One of them, is to use a dashboard system.

According to him, this system has been used by the Riau Police to monitor the situation in areas prone to forest and land fires. So, he assessed, if all areas prone to fire use this system, it is not impossible that supervision will be easier.

However, apart from technology-based supervision, Indonesia actually already has a monitoring infrastructure down to the lower level using Babinsa, Bhabinkamtibmas, to the Village Head.

Finally, to prevent fires on peatlands, Jokowi also asked that the ecosystem be managed consistently.

He asked the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) together with the Peat Restoration Agency (BRG), and the Ministry of Public Works to continue to maintain the level of surface water consistently in various ways.

The goal is to keep peatlands wet so that there is no dry land that triggers forest fires.

"The ground water level is continuously maintained so that the peat remains wet and we have done this with the canals, drilled wells and other wetting technologies. We have to do this only consistently," he concluded.