JAKARTA - The success of controlling forest and land fires (karhutla) in the last three years has not made the government careless. Led by the Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya, the government held a Technical Coordination Meeting for Forest and Land Fire Control and Anticipation for the 2023 Kemarau Season.
''The success of controlling forest and land fires in 2022 is not without effort, but with hard work for all of us. Thank God Indonesia in the last three years has been free from forest and land fire smoke disasters. I thank all work teams, that the process to get to permanent prevention as ordered by Mr. President Joko Widodo has begun to be seen,'' said Minister Siti Nurbaya, Thursday, December 29.
Minister Siti said the keys to successfully controlling forest and land fires include peat/landscape management, law enforcement, Weather Modification Technology (TMC), integrated patrols, preparedness, unburned land clearing, hotspot monitoring systems, patrol operations involving multi-party collaborations to the site level.
As of December 28, 2022, although there was an increase in hotspots of 19 points, the area of Karhutla experienced a decline of ~154,180 Ha (42.96 percent) compared to the 2021 period. The majority of forest and land fires in 2022 occurred in the provinces of NTT and NTB, dominated by savana/garden grass, shrubs and dry land farming.
In 2022, there will be a decrease in GRK emissions due to forest and land fires from 46.465.267 tons of CO2e to 23.239.720 tons of CO2e or 50 percent compared to the 2021 period.
As of December 2022, the Mandiri Patrol by Manggala Agni KLHK has been carried out in 490 forest and land fire-prone villages. Integrated patrols are also carried out together with Babinsa (TNI), Babinkamtibmas (POLRI), and the Fire Care Society (MPA). Currently, the Integrated Patrol has been carried out at 90 village posts in Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi.
The readiness of the KLHK forest and land fires Brigade is spread across 34 Daops, 37 work huts and 1,997 MA personnel throughout Indonesia. The good news is that the government continues to strive to increase the status of members of the Supreme Court to become PPPK functional next year.
As of November 2022, there are 5 (five) provinces that have set an emergency alert status for forest and land fires, namely Riau, West Kalimantan, South Sumatra, Jambi and South Kalimantan. In addition, there are 13 regencies/cities that have declared an emergency response status for forest and land fires in 5 (five) provinces prone to forest and land fires.
The TMC operation for the discussion of peatlands has been carried out in 2022 in the Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, and West Kalimantan areas. The additional rainfall from historical rainfall during TMC activities was carried out, namely Riau Province (15%-16.78%), South Sumatra (29.6%), Jambi (13.1%) and West Kalimantan (35.2%).
Para pihak seperti BNPB, TNI dan Polri ikut dalam kegiatan bersama TMC, patroli udara dan operasi Water Bombing (WB). Sedangkan pada ranah penegakan hukum, telah dilakukan pengawasan pada perusahaan, sanksi administrasi, dan facilitasi Polri/Jaksa.
''Thank you for this very productive collaboration. We must continue to strengthen prevention work so that there is no smog disaster caused by forest and land fires,'' said Minister Siti Nurbaya.
Meanwhile, the Head of BMKG, Dwikorita Karnawati, said that this preparedness meeting was very important, in anticipation of forest and land fires early. The 2023 annual rainfall is predicted to be generally in the normal category, and will be slightly lower than in 2022 (La Nina condition).
''Berdasarkan kondisi iklim hingga Juni 2023, secara umum potensi rendah untuk kejadian titik api. Namun perlu diwaspadai kemarau 2023 (August-September) yang dapat lebih besar potensi kahutlanya dibandingkan saat kemarau wet di tahun 2020-2021-2022,'' jelasnya.
Meanwhile, Deputy III for Emergency Management of BNPB, Major General TNI Fajar Setyawan said his party was always ready to support forest and land fire prevention measures.
''Prevention is a priority. An evaluation meeting and work plan like this is important so that we are not all caught when it comes to the dry season. Various regulations already exist, it's just a matter of strengthening the implementation," said Fajar.
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