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Director general of environment and forestry law enforcement at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Rasio Ridho Sani, joining the virtual 2021 Year-End Reflection event from here on Monday (December 27, 2021). (ANTARA PHOTO/Prisca Triferna) - 

Potential land and forest fires remain a huge concern from the environmental and forestry perspective, director general of environment and forestry law enforcement at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Rasio Ridho Sani, has said.  

During the virtual 2021 Year-End Reflection event here on Monday, he noted that forest and land fires remain a big challenge besides environmental pollution and forest encroachment.

Based on data gathered through the ministry's observations, system monitoring, and public submissions, as many as 8,152 potential environmental and forestry issues were recorded between 2015 and 2021, he noted.

Potential forest and land fires made up the largest chunk of these at 2,118, followed by environmental pollution (1,641), and forest encroachment (1,295), he informed.

The locations of these potential problems were also spread out across various points in Indonesia, he said.

There were upward and downward trends seen in various cases, he explained. One of the factors behind this was the public's social dynamic,and some issues attracting people's concerns.

This was because the potential data was also collated based on people's reports, Sani explained.

He cited a decline in the number of illegal wildlife and endangered plant cases  in 2021 despite the fact that it reached 167 cases in 2020 and 150 cases in 2019.

This can be attributed to the operations that the ministry carried out or a reduction in the opportunities to carry out crimes, he said.

"This is what we continue to delve into for the sake of strategic law enforcement steps that we conducted," Sani affirmed.

Earlier, the ministry had highlighted an increase in the area of forest and land burnt during the January–November 2021 period to 353,222 hectares from 296,942 hectares in 2020//ANT