Enviro News Asia, Pelalawan – The Ministry of Environment/Environmental Control Agency (KLH/BPLH) moved swiftly to strengthen forest and land fire (karhutla) prevention ahead of the dry season in Riau Province. Minister of Environment/Head of BPLH Moh. Jumhur Hidayat personally led cross-sector collaboration efforts in the Kampar River–Gaung River Peat Hydrological Unit (KHG) in Pelalawan Regency, integrating water governance through canal block construction, buffer zone restoration, and the building of an ecological culture among communities as a long-term solution for national peat protection.
Pelalawan Regency has been designated a national karhutla control priority area due to its vast peatland landscape within the Kampar–Gaung KHG. In Pulau Mendol and Pulau Muda village, Minister Jumhur rallied collaboration with the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the Ministry of Forestry, regional government, the National Police, businesses, and local communities to ensure peat ecosystems remain saturated. The rewetting effort is urgent given that of Indonesia’s 13.36 million hectares of peatland, around 3.31 million hectares have been damaged and require planned restoration.
“My visit here with BNPB and the Ministry of Forestry, together with the Regent and the Regional Police Chief, is to show that this joint movement to keep water inundated, building canal blocks, creating a kind of dam to limit water discharge so it can spread out into the surrounding area, is part of efforts to mitigate and reduce the risk of land fire disasters,” Minister Jumhur said during his inspection of Pulau Mendol.
To optimize protection, KLH/BPLH has deployed real-time groundwater monitoring and water-sharing practices to maintain peat moisture during the peak dry season. The urgency is underscored by a significant infrastructure gap: of the 538,568 canal blocks ideally needed across seven fire-prone provinces to secure 269,284 kilometers of canals, only around 45,430 units are currently in place.
In response, KLH/BPLH is accelerating hydrological infrastructure development and strengthening the Peat-Aware Independent Village (DMPG) program based on the 3R framework of rewetting, revegetation, and economic revitalization across 2,354 villages. This effort has received full backing from the private sector, including APP Group, whose Director Suhendra Wiriadinata pledged to support the government’s strategic steps at the field level.
“We agree with the Minister’s direction that prevention is the key to controlling forest and land fires. Strong collaboration between central government, regional government, law enforcement, the business sector, and communities is essential. We are committed to supporting whatever is needed to make this collaboration work, from building canal blocks and providing equipment to supporting communities around the area,” Suhendra said.
Grassroots support also came from the Teluk Meranti Fire-Aware Community (MPA). MPA representative Marlizar affirmed the community’s readiness to remain vigilant and conduct daily field monitoring.
“We are ready to support whatever the government and companies can do to tackle these fires. Every day we patrol together with the community. We hope the Minister’s visit here will lead to more canal blocks being built, because they are so important for preventing fires,” Marlizar said.
Minister Jumhur called on ministries, regional governments, the private sector, and all of society to work together in the field, stressing that concrete collaboration and collective awareness are the primary keys to keeping peat wet, preventing karhutla, and protecting public safety. (*)
