Kupastuntas.co, Bandar Lampung - The Lampung Province Forestry Service (Dishut) noted, 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 Service, Yanyan Ruchyansyah, said that the area of forest and land that had been burned had been verified by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK).

"Our data and monitoring of forest and land fires have been verified by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK). Most of the incidents were in East Lampung Regency covering an area of 4,656 hectares," Yanyan said after a meeting on the formation of the forest and land fire task force (Karhutla) in the meeting room Lampung governor's office, Wednesday (26/7).

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.

"The fire was intentional. Because it happened over and over again. Prevention efforts by empowering communities 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 (Satgas) for dealing with forest fires involving all agencies from the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) as the coordinating center, police, prosecutors, Danrem, Lanal, and several related agencies. The task force involved 2,017 officers.

Previously, the Governor of Lampung, Arinal Djunaidi said forest fires were an event that had to be anticipated during the dry season.

“The formation of a task force for forest and land fire management is the right step. I've been in forestry so I understand very well. So today we need to form a karhutla task force," said Arinal while giving a speech at a meeting to form a forest and land fire task force in the Lampung Governor's office meeting room, Wednesday (26/7).

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 on an ongoing basis, 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, an SK task force will be issued," 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 BPBD.

Director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Lampung, Irfan Tri Musri said, in efforts 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 elements from the community, so they are aware of the impact of fire on the environment. This needs education, don't burn land when it's dry," 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 should be given strict sanctions so that there is a deterrent effect," he said. (*)

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