Indonesia witnessed a 43-percent decline in terms of areas affected by forest and land fires in 2022 as compared to the burned areas in 2021, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry’s (KLHK’s) data.

“Until November 2022, we have calculated that the forest and land fire area has declined by 43 percent as compared to that in 2021,” Climate Change Handling Director General at the Ministry Laksmi Dhewanti stated.

According to the ministry’s data, in 2022, the forest and land fire area declined by around 152,797 hectares, he noted during KLHK’s 2022 Year End Reflection event held virtually on Thursday.

This aligns with the forest and land fire decline trends that Indonesia experienced within the last few years.

According to the ministry’s SiPongi data in 2020, the affected land area reached 296,942 hectares. This figure rose to 358,867 hectares in 2021 and declined once again to 202,617 hectares this year.

This figure is far below the forest and land fire area in 2019 when fires ravaged 1,649,258 hectares of forest and land areas.

On the occasion, Minister of Environment and Forestry’s Senior Adviser Efransjah lauded the decline in forest and land fire area that significantly affects the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

“That is an incredible achievement. Everyone is silent because some time ago, half of the planet produced large amount of emissions from forest and land fires in developed countries,” he remarked.

To this end, he expressed gratitude over the actions taken at the grassroots level, including prevention undertaken by the Manggala Agni that is a forest and land fire handling brigade under the ministry.

He also highlighted that the role of people in forest and land fire prevention and handling efforts was one of the key factors that allowed Indonesia to reduce the extent of burned areas.

Source: Antara News