Indonesia Environment Ministry: Forest and Land Fires Begin Showing Declining Trend

Netral News 3 Oct 17;

JAKARTA, NETRALNEWS.COM - Director of Forest and Land Fire Control at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Raffles B Panjaitan said according to Forest and Land Fire Control Main Post on October 2, 2017 at 8 pm decrease of hotspots was visible in Indonesian territory.

Based on NOAA satellite, there were only six monitored hotspots, including Bangka Belitung one spot, East Java one spot, Central Kalimantan one spot, South Kalimantan one spot, and South Sulawesi two spots.

Meanwhile, based on TERRA AQUA (NASA)'s confidence level of 80 percent there were only seven hotspots, namely South Sumatera one spot, Riau two spots, South Sulawesi one spots, and East Nusa Tenggara three spots.

"From monitoring the hotspots have decreased and the rain has dropped in some areas, Manggala Agni [fire brigade] is still conducting an integrated patrol with some parties and providing counseling to the community. The condition of vulnerability also begins to be safe," said Raffles, as quoted from the website of the Ministry of Environment, Tuesday (10/03/2017).

Until last night (10/02), the Main Post recorded NOAA Satellite has monitored hotspots amounting to 2,332 points throughout the territory of Indonesia. Meanwhile in the same period in 2016, the number of hotspots was 3,707 points, so there is a decrease in the number of hotspots by 1,079 points or 31.67 percent.

Meanwhile, the TERRA-AQUA satellite (NASA) recorded a total of 1,717 hotspots, decreasing by 1,782 points (50.90 percent), compared to 2016 in the same period, which were 3,497 points.

"Integrated patrol with some parties is still being implemented to realize the presence of officers at the site level. Manggala Agni also socializes forest and land fire prevention to the community, runs a chain of communications, and strengthens early detection and extinguishing efforts," Raffles said.