JAKARTA: Indonesia has seen a marked decrease in the number of forest and land fires this year compared to 2023, according to an official from the country’s environment and forestry ministry (KLHK).
On Sunday (Oct 13), Mr Thomas Nifinluri – the director of the ministry’s land and forest fire control agency – told local media that there was a 59.4 per cent decrease in the number of fire hotspots in the country based on satellite observations.
“The total number of hotspots in the period from Jan 1 to Oct 10, 2024, is 3,163, whereas in the same period in 2023 it was 7,786,” Mr Nifinluri said in a written statement.
He added that the ministry remains committed to ongoing fire control efforts to ensure stability ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Prabowo Subianto on Oct 20, local media platform Tempo reported.
According to a report by BBC Indonesia last month, local environmental activists have considered outgoing President Joko Widodo’s administration to have “failed” in managing forest and land fires in the country. This, they said, affected over 7.6 million hectares during his nine years in office despite enforcement efforts.
Last year, Mr Widodo had warned that the police should prevent large fires from spreading during the dry season, or they will be dismissed from the force. And in 2016, the Jakarta Globe reported that the president had similarly threatened the job security of police and military officials if they did not successfully prevent forest and land fires from reoccurring that year.
Typically, Indonesia’s dry season stretches from April to October.
KLHK on Sunday said that the largest burned area is located at East Nusa Tenggara at 93,572.19 hectares, followed by West Nusa Tenggara at 34,430.48 hectares, and East Java at 18,822.62 hectares – all on mineral land.
Meanwhile, carbon emissions due to forest and land fires from Jan 1 until Sep 30 this year amounted to 41.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, which comprises 11.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents from peat fires (below ground) and 29.6 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents from mineral and peat fires above ground, according to local media.
“In preparing and optimising the deployment of fire control resources, up to now, eight provinces have declared a state of emergency alert for forest and land fires, namely Riau, South Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara, Jambi, East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, and South Kalimantan,” Mr Nifinluri said in the same statement, as quoted by Tempo.
