With Indonesia still in the grip of the coronavirus, which is known to trigger serious acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), forest fires and the associated smog could possibly spell a double disaster, suffocating people and animals.
Wildfires are usually known to occur every year on Sumatra and Kalimantan islands during the dry season. They typically produce smog that can shroud neighboring countries, particularly Malaysia and Singapore.
This year, the peak dry season is forecast for August and September.
During a restricted cabinet meeting chaired by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in Jakarta on June 23, 2020, Doni Monardo, chief of the Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 Reaction, cautioned that heavy smoke from forest and land fires, specifically peatlands, might adversely impact public health and boost threat of people contracting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
” Heavy smoke can position a health hazard to the community, especially those ailing from asthma or ARI (severe breathing infection). The impact might be unsafe for asthma clients when exposed to COVID-19,” Monardo said.
For this reason, Jokowi has actually bought his ministers to take preventive steps versus forest and land fires, Monardo added.
He stressed the requirement for closer cooperation between all areas of the community in all areas to mitigate forest and land fires, particularly in fire-prone areas.
” There is a pushing requirement for effort and cooperation from all areas of the community in all regions that every year experience significant forest and land fires, especially in the peatland areas,” he stated.
” We (have to) avoid the smoke, so that we can likewise secure ourselves from the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he kept in mind.
While opening the restricted meeting on anticipation of forest and land fires, Jokowi reiterated that big sections of Indonesia would experience a dry season in August, 2020.
The president elaborated that nearly 17 percent of Indonesia’s territory experienced dry spell in April, 2020, while 38 percent of other regions reeled under it in May, 2020, and 27 percent of other regions in June 2020
” Dry spell will occur in the majority of areas in August. We still have a short preparation duration of a month from now on,” the President said.
As the nation grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia also has a major job of taking preventive steps versus land and forest fires, he stated.
Jokowi likewise highlighted the need to use innovation to avoid land and forest fires, while monitoring fire-prone locations.
” Management on the field must be coordinated properly. Apply technology to keep an eye on fire-prone areas and to upgrade info,” he mentioned.
The President likewise required efforts to organize the management of peat environments in a consistent way.
Peatland structuring is conducted by maintaining groundwater levels and constructing canal blocks, ponds, and drilling wells.
” We have already applied other moistening innovations, however it needs to be regularly done,” the President stated.
Meanwhile, throughout the meeting, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya Bakar said the Indonesian federal government is preparing for a possible surge in forest fires, particularly in northern Sumatra, Riau, Aceh, and parts of North Sumatra, in addition to Kalimantan.
In reality, the federal government performed weather condition modification to produce rains in a number of places, such as Riau and other parts of Sumatra, in April and May, to manage smoke from wildfires.
Based on weather analysis, hotspots in Kalimantan will be strong with the onset of the dry season in July.
” Hopefully, this (weather adjustment) can be an option. Instead of continuing to extinguish it (forest fire), with this, we can methodically get ready for it,” she said.
In addition to weather adjustment, the federal government has also intensified monitoring and control by involving the authorities and the military to prevent forest fires.
In the meantime, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD, has claimed that Indonesia has effectively minimized forest fires, without any enormous fires reported in the country over the past few years.
” In the meeting, we have talked about the scenario in 2020, as we are not just handling land and forest fires, but likewise COVID-19 Hence, we have prepared joint procedures to prepare for the oncoming dry season,” the minister informed.
Efforts to prevent and alleviate forest fires would require firm police. Thus, some legal measures have actually been prepared in anticipation of forest fires this year.
In 2019, 6 out of eight provinces vulnerable to forest fires stated an emergency as flames flared in their forest areas.
Last year, wildfires sweltered nearly 16,000 sq. km of land, mainly on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan. In contrast, fires laid to waste 26,000 sq. km of land in 2015, leading to one of the worst haze episodes in the country’s history.
During the January-July 2019 duration, the Indonesian Environmental Affairs and Forestry Ministry tape-recorded an overall of 2,070 hotspots, with confidence rate at over 80 percent.
Meanwhile, through legal enforcement and company control, the Indonesian federal government had actually handled to minimize forest fires throughout the country by 96.5 percent throughout the 2015-2017 period.
Based on data acquired from NOAA’s satellites, 21,929 hotspots were found throughout Indonesia in 2015, and the figure dropped to 3,915 in 2016, and to 2,257 in 2017.
Wild fires razed a total of 2,611,411 hectares in 2015, and the figure fell to 438,360 hectares in 2016, and dipped further to 165,464 hectares in 2017.
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