Indonesia: Fire razes state forests in Jambi

The Jakarta Post 24 Jul 15;

Forest fires have continued to take place in Jambi province, with the NOAA satellite detecting 22 hotspots on Thursday.

“Two hotspots have been detected in state forests in West Tanjung Jabung and Tebo regencies,” said Jambi Forestry Office head Irmansyah Rahman.

He added that seven of the hotspots are in Tebo, five in Muarojambi, three in East Tanjung Jabung, three in Sarolangun, and one in Merangin, Batanghari and Bungo.

“A team has gone to the field to inspect the situation,” said Irmansyah.

The detected hotspots are located in forested areas, plantations, farms, and in community and state forests, he added.

Irmansyah also urged residents living close to peatland to refrain from carelessly throwing cigarette butts because peatland is highly flammable.

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Fire spots flare up across dry RI
thejakartapost.com 24 Jul 15;

Environment and Forestry Ministry Siti Nurbaya said on Friday that the number of fire spots in Indonesian territory had increased rapidly over the last few days, as the country had seen little rainfall.

“On the 22th, there were 70 spots. Yesterday, we detected 153 and today, we found 158 spots,” Siti said as quoted by kompas.com

The spots were found in Bengkulu, Central Java, South Sulawesi and South and East Kalimantan, she added.

High temperatures and the lack of rainfall had contributed to the rapid increase in the number of fire spots detected, she went on.

Siti also said that the government would take precautionary measures to avoid further fires, such as water bombing.

Indonesia is slated to lead a meeting between environment and forestry ministries from ASEAN countries tomorrow to discuss measures to prevent smoke from Indonesia entering neighboring countries. (ika)(++++)

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