JAKARTA - The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) has prepared a number of strategies to prevent forest and land fires (karhutla) in Indonesia from land to air operations.
Head of BNPB Suharyanto said the strategy was centered on the gymnastics of forest and land fires subscription provinces, namely Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan.
"But it is possible that other provinces will have forest and land fires, we will also carry out the action," he said at a press conference on Preparedness for Facing Forestry 2023 at Graha BNPB, Jakarta, Wednesday, January 25.
Suharyanto said that the land operation carried out was to extinguish the hotspots before it grew. The activity was carried out with the TNI-Polri as well as personnel from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) which was very large and many in number.
The air operations supported by BNPB are using patrol helicopters and water bombing helicopters that flush using water with chemical mixtures, so that fires that burn forests can be extinguished immediately.
In addition, there is also weather modification technology that aims to bring in so that the fire that appears with the rain will be extinguished immediately.
The application of weather modification technology, formerly known as artificial rain technology, is part of forest and land fires prevention efforts by wetting peat. This method is effective when dealing with forest and land fires that occurred in 2020.
Meanwhile, Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya emphasized that the government will not forgive private companies that create forest and land fires in Indonesia.
When there was a hotspot, the government immediately gave a warning to the company.
"This way of law enforcement is the best. So, if a fire is detected on private land, it will definitely be affected," said Minister Siti.
Previously, the BMKG stated that the forest and land fires disaster was predicted to increase this year, which has the same potential as the incident in 2019.
The phenomenon of La Nina which is getting weaker and more neutral causes rainfall to decrease, so it has the potential to create hotspots in forest and land areas. Even the neutral condition is very close to being close to El Nino's condition is weak.
BMKG predicts that this year's rainfall will decrease when compared to last year's rainfall and three years ago, although it is still the peak of the rainy season.
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