Focus on Reducing Forest Fire Numbers Through Prevention and Improved Governance

Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni is targeting a reduction in forest and land fires (karhutla) through strengthening prevention and improving handling governance in the field. The move is being made as the dry season is projected to arrive earlier and last longer than usual. Minister Raja Antoni stated that various concrete efforts need to be prepared early so that forest and land fires can be better controlled. According to him, the main target is not only responding to fires, but also reducing the number of incidents as much as possible through preventive measures. “What concrete things do we do so that forest and land fires this year and next year can be better controlled, the numbers can decrease. Ideally, if we could have zero karhutla, that would be very ideal, but at least we can reduce the numbers as much as possible,” said Minister Raja Antoni during a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Forestry’s Directorate General of Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Forestry Office on Tuesday (14/7). In addition to strengthening prevention, the Ministry of Forestry will evaluate various control instruments, ranging from the need for weather modification operations (OMC), monitoring groundwater levels (TMAT) in vulnerable areas, to the readiness of personnel and equipment in the field. All these steps will be calculated based on real needs so that forest and land fire handling runs more effectively. Furthermore, Minister Raja Antoni emphasised that improvements are not only focused on case handling, but also include refining regulations and governance so that forest and land fire control can run more effectively in the long term. “What I want is structural improvement, so it is not just about cases. What regulations need to be improved, what must we do so that the nature of the change is structural and long term, so there is something more stable for colleagues to move forward with improvements,” he said.