In the momentum of Ramadan and ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the President's message is that there should be no disturbing forest and land fires.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Hadi Tjahjanto, has urged all regions to remain alert and increase efforts to prevent forest and land fires though fire areas have declined compared to 2019.

"In the momentum of Ramadan and ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the President's message is that there should be no disturbing forest and land fires," he said during a special coordination meeting on forest and land fire handling and anticipation in 2024 here on Thursday.

Preparatory steps are essential considering that a moderate El Nino phenomenon will persist in March 2024, according to a monitoring report from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

Tjahjanto asked all regional heads, military regional commanders, regional police chiefs, and heads of high prosecutor's offices to convey the mandate to their ranks so that it can be implemented in accordance with Presidential Instruction Number 3 of 2020 on Forest and Land Fire Handling.

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He also urged ministries, institutions, commander of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI), chief of the National Police (Polri), military regional commanders, regional police chiefs, stakeholders, and the community to work together to handle forest and land fires.

During Thursday's meeting, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar reported that in 2023, there was a decline in forest and land fire areas of around 488,064.65 hectares, or 29.59 percent compared to 2019.

If the accumulation of hotspots in 2023 and 2019 is compared, there has been a decrease of 15,961 hotspots, or around 59.92 percent.

Furthermore, in 2023, emissions from forest fires reached 182,714,440 tons of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent), a decline of 421,091,134 tons, or 69.74 percent compared to 2019.

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Translator: Prisca Triferna, Raka Adji
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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