More Than 50 Percent Of The Area In South Sumatra Is In The Category Of High-level Forest And Land Fires

Photo via Antara

JAKARTA - The South Sumatra Forestry Service noted that 67 percent of their area is categorized as high vulnerability to forest and land fires (karhutla).

Head of Protection for Ecosystem Human Resources Conservation at the South Sumatra Forestry Service, Safrul Yunardy in Palembang, Wednesday said that one of the main reasons is because South Sumatra has at least 1 million hectares of peat area.

“Peat is very different, if it burns it is very difficult to extinguish. That's what causes South Sumatra to be categorized as a province prone to forest and land fires in the country," said Safrul as quoted from Antara.

Observing the occurrence of forest and land fires from 2015 to 2021, there are six districts in South Sumatra that always experience forest and land fires. Ogan Komering Ilir Regency occupies the top rank, when referring to the area burned and the number of hotspots (hot spots).

Meanwhile, the other four districts are Banyuasin, Musi Banyuasin, Ogan Ilir, Musi Rawas and Muaraenim.

The occurrence of forest and land fires in these six regencies/cities generally started in May and peaked in October.

On this basis, the Karhutla Task Force was alerted before May as an anticipation and mitigation measure.

"Learning from past experience, South Sumatra already knows when to prioritize in handling forest and land fires," he said.

According to him, the planning related to forest and land fire control must be adjusted to the rainfall because from previous research it is known that there is a close relationship between hotspots and rainfall.

It is also necessary to pay attention to the management of forest and land fires in 2022 that there is now a shift in the pattern of fires based on the function of the peat ecosystem.

In 2015, many forest and land fires occurred in temporary production forests in 2019 in HPL (Other Use Rights) areas.

In 2015 there was also a lot of peat with protected functions, while in 2019 it turned to peat with cultivation functions.

"With these changes in pattern, it is hoped that they can be input for various related parties so that the response becomes more effective," he said.

Until now, South Sumatra has not been separated from the surveillance of forest and land fires after experiencing a severe incident in 2015 which scorched at least 700 thousand hectares.

The Regional Disaster Management Agency for the Province of South Sumatra has set the fire and forest fire alert status on April 9-November 2022.