VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The basic problem of Forest and Land Fires is livelihood of local people in the field of agriculture and plantation. To explore forest and land, people and plantation companies often take shortcuts by burning forest and land due to low cost considerations. It was said by Deputy of System and Strategy of National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), Wisnu Widjaja at the   Merdeka Barat 9 Forum   held at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics in Jakarta on Monday (Sept 23). He said the forest and land fires   can be dealt with through strong synergy among the government, media and community.

“Principally, if we want to overcome collaboratively, it must be done by the government, community, businessmen, experts and medias. At present 328 thousand hectares of land are on fire, according to data from the Environment and Forestry ministry. The cumulative hotspots currently to 3,124. We also deploy 48 helicopters or planes, 4 of which are for weather modification. We have also mobilized Hercules, CN-295, Cassa. There are available in Kalimantan as well as in Sumatra, especially in South Sumatra, Riau and Jambi,” said Wisnu Widjaja.

Meanwhile, Director General of Law Enforcement  of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Rasio Ridho Sani explained that the Ministry has sealed 52 companies of concession license holder with the total of 8,931 hectares areas. The Ministry has also provided 288 warning letters to the involved companies of forest and land fires. He further said that the law enforcement  is needed to train obedience  for people, so that they have awareness to protect forest and land. (VOI/NUKE/TRS AF)