JAKARTA, Oct 14 — Indonesia has reported a significant decline in forest and land fires in 2024 compared to the previous year, said an official from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) yesterday.
CAN reported director of the ministry’s land and forest fire control agency, Thomas Nifinluri, as saying that satellite observations indicated a 59.4 per cent reduction in fire hotspots across the country.
“The total number of hotspots from January 1 to October 10, 2024 stands at 3,163, compared to 7,786 during the same period in 2023,” Nifinluri stated in a written statement.
He emphasised the ministry’s commitment to ongoing fire control measures to ensure stability ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Prabowo Subianto on October 20.
However, a report by BBC Indonesia last month highlighted that local environmental activists have deemed outgoing President Joko Widodo’s administration a failure in managing forest and land fires, which have impacted over 7.6 million hectares during his nine-year tenure, despite enforcement efforts.
Last year, Widodo warned police that failure to prevent large fires during the dry season could lead to dismissal from the force.
In 2016, Jakarta Globe reported similar threats regarding job security for police and military officials if they did not successfully prevent the recurrence of forest and land fires.
Indonesia’s dry season typically runs from April to October.
Yesterday, KLHK announced that the largest area burned this year was in East Nusa Tenggara, totalling 93,572.19 hectares, followed by West Nusa Tenggara with 34,430.48 hectares, and East Java with 18,822.62 hectares, all on mineral land.
Additionally, carbon emissions from forest and land fires from January 1 to September 30, 2024 reached 41.2 million tons of carbon dioxide.
This includes 11.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents from peat fires below ground and 29.6 million tons from mineral and peat fires above ground, according to local reports.
Nifinluri noted that eight provinces have declared a state of emergency alert for forest and land fires, including Riau, South Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara, Jambi, East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, and South Kalimantan.
