Deputy Minister of Environment and Forestry Alue Dohong has said that Indonesia’s success in reducing forest and land fires has been the result of cooperation and collaboration between several stakeholders.

“In overcoming the fires, the government cannot do it alone without any support and coordination with other stakeholders, comprising the community and the private sector,” he remarked during a discussion at the Indonesian Pavilion at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP) in Glasgow, Scotland, accessed virtually here on Thursday.

He informed that the ministry has collaborated with other stakeholders for years and mobilized communities, academics, and the private sector to prevent and deal with land and forest fires.

He also highlighted Indonesia’s achievements in reducing burnt areas in recent years.

In a presentation, the Environment and Forestry Minister’s expert staff, Raffles B. Panjaitan, informed that compared to the big fires that occurred in 2015 and 2019, which burned 2,611,411 hectares (ha) and 1,649,258 ha of land, respectively, the burnt area was successfully reduced to 296,942 ha in 2020 and 229,978 ha as of September 2021.

“In 2020 and 2021, the burnt area significantly declined,” he noted.

Furthermore, Deputy Minister Dohong also emphasized that handling fires requires greater contribution from local governments, local communities, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and international partners.

He then lauded the contribution of one international partner, Professor Johann Goldammer, a German researcher and the director of the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), who was also present in the discussion.

The professor received the Bintang Jasa Utama medal – an honor given to someone who has made a great contribution to Indonesia in an event or sector — from President Joko Widodo in August 2021 for his studies on forest fires in Indonesia, which he conducted since the 1970s.

Source: Antara News