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Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya Bakar. (ANTARA/Muhammad Zulfikar)

Indonesian Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, said the Indonesian government is anticipating a potential explosion in forest and land fires in the months of August and September this year.

"We have studied both climate behavior and hotspot behavior and also the timing of the forest fire explosion, which averaged the second week, the third week, to the first week of September," Siti said after a limited meeting with the President at the Jakarta Presidential Palace on Tuesday.

Siti said that based on monitoring in northern Sumatra, Riau, and Aceh, and parts of North Sumatra, there are normally two critical phases in the occurrence of forest fires.

The first phase occurs in March-April, while the second phase falls in June-July, and peaks in August-September, she explained.

Rain engineering using weather modification can help mitigate the crisis, she averred. Rain engineering can be performed based on the analysis of the Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency and carried out by the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, with the support of Air Force aircraft, she continued.

“That (weather modification) can be done and we have passed the first crisis phase in Riau," said Siti.

She said the first phase was very important because it coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and Eid al-Fitr.

The concerned institutions carried out weather modification in several places, such as Sumatra (May 13-31, 2020), to control smoke from wildfires during Eid al-Fitr, she informed.

“So, there is a correlation between the modification of rain (and generation of smoke), so the clouds are engineered to be induced, so that they have a lot of water vapor, so that they produce rain. The rain wets the peat and fills the reservoirs, so there is no smoke," she explained.

There are plans to carry out weather modification again in Kalimantan, she stated. Based on BMKG's analysis, hotspots in Kalimantan will be strong with the onset of the dry season in July. The hotspots will peak in late August to early September.

“Hopefully, this (weather modification) can be a solution. Rather than continuing to extinguish it (forest fire), with this, we can systematically prepare for it," she said.

Meanwhile, the central government is also coordinating with regional governments to protect forest areas and strengthen the monitoring system of the National Police. (ANTARA)

COVID-19 Handling Acceleration Task Force Chief Doni Monardo. (ANTARA/Muhammad Zulfikar)

COVID-19 Handling Acceleration Task Force Chief Doni Monardo cautioned that heavy smoke from forest and land fires, especially peatlands, can adversely impact public health and augment the risk of people contracting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

"Heavy smoke can pose a health threat to the community, particularly those ailing from asthma or ARI (acute respiratory infection). The impact is dangerous for asthma patients when exposed to COVID-19," Monardo noted after a limited meeting at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Tuesday.

To this end, Monardo remarked that President Joko Widodo had called to take precautionary steps against the occurrence of forest and land fires (karhutla). He stressed the need for closer cooperation between all sections of the community in all regions to mitigate forest and land fires, particularly in fire-prone areas.

"There is a pressing need for hard work and cooperation from all components of the community in all regions that annually experience significant forest and land fires, especially in the peatland areas," he stated.

"We avoid the smoke, so that we can also safeguard ourselves from the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic," he noted.

While opening the limited meeting, President Joko Widodo had stated that large sections of Indonesia would experience the dry season in August 2020.

The head of state elaborated that nearly 17 percent of Indonesia's territory had experienced drought in April 2020, while 38 percent of other regions had reeled from it in May 2020, and 27 percent of the other regions in June 2020.

"Drought will occur in most regions in August. We still have a short preparation period of a month from now on," the president remarked.

The president called for efforts to arrange the management of peat ecosystems in a consistent manner. Peatland structuring is conducted by maintaining groundwater levels and constructing canal blocks, ponds, and drilled wells.

"We have already applied other wetting technologies, but it must be consistently done," the president stated. (ANTARA)

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD, has claimed that Indonesia has successfully minimized forest fires, with no massive fires reported in the country in the past few years.

The government has prepared some integrated measures to prevent land and forest fires, Mahfud said in Jakarta on Tuesday, after a limited meeting on the issue, led by President Joko Widodo.

"In the meeting, we have discussed the situation in 2020, as we are not only dealing with land and forest fires, but also COVID-19. Hence, we have prepared joint measures to anticipate the oncoming dry season," the minister informed.

"In the past few years, Alhamdulillah (thank God), we have managed to minimize forest fires, and we can say that no more massive fires have happened," he claimed.

"Protests from environmental activists as well as neighboring countries, during the past four-five years, were fewer,” he noted.

Efforts to prevent and mitigate forest fires, the minister said, would need firm law enforcement.

He reiterated that some measures have been prepared in anticipation of forest fires this year.

In 2019, forest fires scorched nearly 16,000 square kilometers of land, mostly on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

In 2015, the fires burned through 26,000 km of land, resulting in one of the worst haze episodes in the country’s history. (ANTARA)

President Joko Widodo appealed to ministries and related institutions to ensure sustainability and consistency in managing peat ecosystems to prevent land and forest fires.

"Peat ecosystem management is conducted consistently. I think the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), Peat Restoration Agency (BRG), and Public Works and Housing Ministry (PUPR) continue to make efforts to maintain the groundwater levels, so that the peat lands remain wet," President Widodo stated during a limited meeting themed "Anticipating Forest and Land Fires" in Istana Merdeka, Jakarta, Tuesday.

The head of state also called to build canal blocks and hundreds of ponds on peatlands to keep the lands wet. The canals and reservoirs will also maintain water availability around peatlands in the event of a fire.

Furthermore, the construction of bore wells focuses on peatland wetting.

"We have applied other technologies for peatland wetting, but we have to remain consistent," he stated.

The head of state reminded that the dry season would hit most of the Indonesian regions in August 2020.

The president pointed out that 17 percent of Indonesia's territory had experienced drought in April 2020, while 38 percent of the other regions in May 2020, and 27 percent in June 2020.

"Drought will occur in most regions in August. We still have a short preparation time of a month from now," the president added. (ANTARA)