Kupastuntas.co, Lampung English - The Lampung Provincial Forestry Service noted that from January to June 2023 there were 4,853.36 hectares of forest and land in Lampung Province on fire.

The fires spread to 1,253 locations. While Lampung Province has a state forest area of 1,004,735 hectares.

The Head of the Lampung Provincial Forestry Office, Yanyan Ruchyansyah, said that the area of forest and land that was burned had been verified by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

"Our data and monitoring of forest and land fires have been verified by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Most of the incidents occurred in East Lampung Regency covering an area of 4,656 hectares," said Yanyan, after a meeting to form the forest and land fire task force in the Lampung Governor's office meeting room, Wednesday 26 July 2023.

Yanyan said, based on the results of coordination in the field, fires in the Way Kambas National Park area, especially in the savanna area, occur regularly every dry season.

"There are indications that the fire was intentional. Because this incident has happened repeatedly. Efforts to prevent it are by empowering the community around the forest," he said.

Yanyan admitted that it is very difficult to control fires in forest areas because the area is large and overgrown with flammable reeds.

"The most effective effort is mitigation by empowering the community so that they become barricades in the area," he added.

Yanyan explained, currently the Provincial Government of Lampung already has a task force for forest fire prevention involving all agencies from the Regional Disaster Management Agency as the coordinating center, police, prosecutors, Danrem, Lanal, and several related agencies. The task force involved 2,017 officers.

The Governor of Lampung, Arinal Djunaidi said forest fires are an event that must be anticipated during the dry season.

"The formation of a task force for combating forest and land fires is the right step. I have been in forestry so I understand very well. So today we need to form a task force for forest and land fires," said Arinal while giving a speech at a meeting to form a task force for land and forest fires in the meeting room of the Governor of Lampung's office, Wednesday 26 July 2023.

Arinal said the Karhutla Task Force would carry out several main programs such as early fire detection, routine (land and air) patrols, periodic reporting of activities and establishing cooperation between all agencies.

"Forest and land fires will harm the environment and farming communities. Moreover, Lampung is one of the national food storage areas. If prevention is not carried out continuously, forests will no longer contribute to the environment, both oxygen and water availability for agriculture," said Arinal.

Arinal said the presence of the karhutla task force was also expected to anticipate wildlife deaths due to forest fires. For this reason, the karhutla task force will be confirmed through a Lampung governor's decree and reported to the Minister of Environment and Forestry.

"So I ask for the perpetrators of forest fires to be sanctioned. For the follow-up, a decision letter will be made for this task force," he said.

The Lampung Province Karhutla Task Force is chaired by the Governor of Lampung, Deputy Chief of the Lampung Police, Danrem 043/Gatam, Danlanal and Head of the Lampung Province Regional Disaster Management Agency.

Director of the Lampung Indonesian Forum for the Environment, Irfan Tri Musri said, in an effort to prevent forest and land fires, public awareness is needed not to burn land for any reason.

"Hopefully the karhutla task force will also have members of the community, so they are aware of the impact of fire on the environment. This needs education, don't burn land during the dry season," said Irfan.

Irfan asked law enforcement officers to give strict sanctions to people who were proven to have set fire to forests on purpose. "Such as when opening new arable land, people usually burn forests. This is something that must be given strict sanctions so that there is a deterrent effect," he said. (*)

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