The years 2020 and 2021 have demonstrated the effectiveness of weather modification technology to prevent land fires
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Environment and Forestry Ministry affirmed that weather modification technology will continue to be promoted to be an integral part of the efforts to prevent and control forest and land fires.

"The years 2020 and 2021 have demonstrated the effectiveness of weather modification technology to prevent land fires. Wetting of areas forecast to experience drought can be immediately," Director General of Climate Change Control at the Environment and Forestry Ministry Laksmi stated during a virtual event on Thursday.

"We are optimistic that in future, weather modification technology would become an inseparable part of the solution to control forest and land fires," she noted.

Weather modification is used to moisten soils, such as peatlands, and to maintain humidity and address the issue of smog due to forest fires. It is also used to extinguish fires in large areas and surmount the drought experienced in certain areas.

Laksmi stressed that the weather modification effort was the result of collaborative work of the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, national defense force, police force, and the National Research and Innovation Agency, among others.

The ministry's forest fire control brigade Manggala Agni and the people, who are concerned about land fires, conduct patrols to encourage fire prevention.

As of November 2021, integrated patrols, involving land fire-aware communities, were conducted across Indonesia. Some 242 posts monitored 633 villages around them.

Independent patrols by Manggala Agni were also conducted at 804 village posts in various provinces prone to forest and land fires.

Data from the ministry showed that during the period from January to November 2021, forest fires occurred in an area of 353,222 hectares, an increase as compared to 296,942 hectares in 2020. It showed an increase in the area by 56,280 hectares or 15.93 percent.

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Translator: Prisca T V, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Sri Haryati
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