by Nabiha Shahab
Jakarta – Indonesia will enter this year’s dry season in April and June, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). The good news is that this year there will be no extreme weather phenomenon that will cause severe droughts carrying the potential to cause forest fires and disastrous haze.
Every time the dry season arrives, people around peat areas usually begin to feel restless. The disaster, which occurs almost every five years in 2015, lasted for more than three months and disrupted neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. Will the smog arrive this year? When it comes, will we be ready?
“Although in 2019 there was also a (haze disaster) but the intensity was not as severe as (in 2015), because we already have a strategy that prioritizes prevention,” said Head of the Climate Change Information Center of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, Dodo Gunawan.
Prevention is better than dealing with disasters after it happens
In 2015, forest and land fires reached more than 2.6 million hectares, mostly in Sumatra and Kalimantan. A Harvard University research estimates that the 2015 event caused the deaths of more than 100,000 people in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. According to the National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB), the death toll in Sumatra and Kalimantan reached 24 people.
“In 2015 we saw very severe forest fires … that’s actually the turning point for us after seeing the impact of forest fires in these events. The government has started to change its strategy … and from the 2015 experience, it was our turning point (to stress our strategy) more on prevention. If (a disaster) has happened, it will be more expensive,” said Dodo Gunawan.
Community efforts in fire prevention
“As we enter the dry season in April – June 2022, BRGM anticipates fire events by carrying out Drought-Prone Peat Wetting Operations (OPGRK). In this operation, we wet peat that is dry and prone to fire, as well as controlling damage to the peat ecosystem from fires so that it does not cause wider damage,” said Didy Wurjanto, Head of the Working Group on Cooperation, Law and Public Relations, Peat and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) to tanahair.net.
According to him, the agency carries out three peatland wetting operations, that is, routine wetting operations, burning peat wetting operations, and Weather Modification Technology (TMC). Routine wetting operations are carried out in peat restoration areas and areas where peat wetting infrastructure has been built.
In routine wetting operations, prevention efforts involve community groups who have been trained to operate canal blocking and drilled wells. Relevant and trained community groups carry out field patrols and maintain the condition of canal blocking and drilled wells for which they are responsible. Canal blocks are built to prevent peat water from flowing into rivers or other watercourses and keep peatlands wet for longer. Meanwhile, drilled wells are installed in the middle of peatlands and can be used to wet peat or as a source of water in fire fighting efforts.
According to BRGM records, in the 2017-2022 period, they had formed 746 Independent Peat Care Villages (DMPG). In the program, there are eight main activities, one of which is to prepare the community for the implementation of peat restoration, and to deal with the possibility of fire, through the Peat Farmer Field School. In this program, communities are trained to manage land without burning and are provided with assistance to integrate peat restoration into village development planning and to strengthen the response to forest and land fires at the village level through institutional strengthening and inter-village cooperation to respond to forest and land fires.
“In 2021, we carried out maintenance and repair of the peat wetting infrastructure to keep its function ready for operation. We also increase community capacity through field schools by clearing land without burning and providing assistance for community economic revitalisation based on land without burning,” said Wurjanto.
“TMC is carried out in accordance with recommendations from the analysis of water level monitoring, in its implementation in collaboration with the weather modification technology implementation unit of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN),” he continued.
In an effort to prevent this, BRGM has also developed a Peatland Restoration Information Management System (PRIMS) platform. “This system is useful as an information system for monitoring restoration activities, communicating the achievements of peat restoration, such as peat rewetting infrastructure, revitalization programs and DMPG. Then if there is a peat area that is burning, it can be extinguished quickly because the burning peat only burns the dry surface,” said Wurjanto.
