VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia succeeded in reducing land and forest fires as well as tackling cross-border haze in the past three years, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya stated.

"We need to underscore that Indonesia succeeded in preventing fires that might cause haze during three years of the pandemic from 2020 to 2022," the minister remarked at the Indonesia Pavilion of the 27th Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC (COP-27) in Sharm el-Sheikh that was followed virtually from Jakarta on Sunday night.

Reducing deforestation is one of the strategies to achieve net emission absorption in the forestry and land use sector or FoLU Net Sink 2030, she stated during the UN climate change conference.

Land and forest fires are one of the issues that the government continues to handle to curb the deforestation rate by involving the public in the social forestry program, among other things.

According to the ministry's data, land and forest fires covered an area of 296,942 hectares in 2020, 358,867 hectares in 2021, and 183,743 hectares in the year ended September 30, 2022.

The figures represented a significant drop as compared to 1.6 million hectares in 2019.

The strategy of implementing FoLU Net Sink 2030 also focuses on conserving and managing forests in a sustainable way, with the aim of reducing forest degradation caused by over-logging and forest encroachment.

Indonesia also continues to take steps to protect and restore peatland and mangrove forests. (Antaranews)