Bogor, W Java, (ANTARA News) - Disaster mitigation education should be part of the environmental lesson at schools since disaster and the environment are closely related, according to a researcher.

"It will be very appropriate to include tsunami disaster mitigation education in an environmental lesson. It is a synergy; inseparable," Hendra Gunawan, chief researcher of the Environmental Affairs and Forestry Ministry, stated here, Thursday.

A disaster could be triggered by environmental damage or men, he remarked.

Tsunamis in Palu, Banten, and Lampung caused significant damage, as the mangrove forest in those areas had vanished, he added.

There appears to be incessant linkages between disasters and environmental damage, he pointed out.

Gunawan noted that Indonesia was hit by several natural disasters in 2018, thereby necessitating the application of early warning systems and intensification of public awareness campaigns on disaster mitigation efforts.

Disaster mitigation lesson is merely a discourse in this country, except in Indramayu, West Java, through the use of a book on environmental and disaster mitigation education written by a team of the Environmental Affairs and Forestry Ministry, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Indramayu administration, and Pertamina.

Reporting by Laily Rahmawaty, Fardah Assegaf
Editing by Suiharto

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Suharto
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