Indonesia: Batam protected forest gutted by fire

Antara 7 Sep 11;

Batam, Riau Islands (ANTARA News) - A fire has gutted around 20 hectares of protected forest in Bukit Tiban, Batuaji, Batam, Riau Islands Province.

"The fire occurs because of lack of supervision," Deputy Mayor of Batam Rudi said here on Wednesday after visiting the location of forest fire.

The Batam protected forest covering hundreds of hectares are supervised by a forest protection team only.

The deputy mayor said Batam should have forest rangers to help preserve the forest.

"We don`t have forest rangers," Rudi said.

The local community`s awareness of forest preservation is also low, according to him.

The local government would conduct a tree replanting program in the burned forest location, he said.

"We will make coordination with the local offices of marine affairs, agriculture, fisheries and forestry of Batam," he said.

Batam has only 25 officers of forest supervision, according to Burkan, the head of the local forest supervision and protection section.

To protect the whole forest in Batam, more officers are very much needed, he said.

The forest fire occurred on Tuesday (Sept 6) from 11.30 am local time to 4 pm, Jabhari, the head of RW 01 neighborhood of Kibing, said.

However, he did not know what had caused the forest fire.

"May be because of cigarette butts, which was thrown by accident," he said.

Meanwhile, in Pagaralam, South Sumatra Province, a fire razed tens of hectares of forest area at Atungbungsu, Dempo Selatan sub district.

Several hectares of coffee and oil palm plantations Atungbungsu were also gutted by fire, Yusman, the head of the local disaster mitigation office, said on Tuesday.

The fire has spread to wider area approaching a human resettlement area. "Around 30 hectares of forest and plantation areas at Mingkik and Nanding villages, Atungbungsu, Dempo Selatan, were gutted by fire," Yusman said.

Forest and plantation areas at Atungbungsu have been dried and prone to fire because there has been no rainfalls since three months ago.
(Uu.F001/HAJM/S012)

Editor: Priyambodo RH

Fire razes tens of hectares of Pagaralam forest area
Antara 7 Sep 11;

Pagaralam, South Sumatra (ANTARA News) - A fire razed tens of hectares of forest area at Atungbungsu, Dempo Selatan sub district, Pagaralam, South Sumatra.

Several hectares of coffee and oil palm plantations Atungbungsu were also gutted by fire, Yusman, the head of the local disaster mitigation office, said here on Tuesday.

The fire has spread to wider area approaching a human resettlement area.

"Around 30 hectars of forest and plantation areas at Mingkik and Nanding villages, Atungbungsu, Dempo Selatan, were gutted by fire," Yusman said.

Forest and plantation areas at Atungbungsu have been dried and prone to fire because there has been no rainfalls since three months ago.

Atungbungsu is the fire worst-affected area which is located near the border of Bukit Barisan forest.

Yusman suspected that the fire was triggered by cigarette butts.

Pagaralam Mayor Djazuli Kuris said he would mobilize two fire brigade trucks and several personnel to extinguish the fire.

The Pagaralam Disaster Mitigation Agency has detected several hot spots in Dempo Selatan and Dempo Tengah sub districts.

"Based on the monitoring result, there area around 30 hot spots, including five at Atungbungsu and six at Lubukbuntak, Dempo Selatan sub district," Yusman said.

Four hot spots are detected at Kancediwe, and five at Pelangkenidai, Dempo Tengah sub district.

"Tens of hot spots have developed in forest area bordering between Pagaralam and Lahat sub districts," he said.

In Pagaralam, the hot spots are detected at Lematang, Selangis, Lubuk Buntak, Autngbungsu and Muaratenang.

In every dry dry, the area is almost always hit by forest fires.

In 2008, hundreds of hectares of forest and plantation areas at Atungbungsu were razed by fire.

Pagaralam Deputy Mayor Ida Fitriati said his area has a protected forest area covering 28,364 hectares, but 30 percent of the area has been damaged.
(Uu.F001/HAJM)

Editor: Priyambodo RH