Enviro News Asia, Jakarta – Minister of Forestry Raja Juli Antoni has again convened a monitoring meeting regarding the 2025 forest fires.
The Minister affirmed that the current forest fire situation is well under control.
The meeting took place at the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) office in Central Jakarta on Monday, July 28, 2025.
In attendance were the Head of BNPB, Lieutenant General Suharyanto, and Deputy Minister of Forestry, Sulaiman Umar.
Also participating virtually were the Head of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Dwikorita Karnawati; the Riau Regional Police Chief, Inspector General Herry Heryawan; and the governors of Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, West Sumatra, and North Sumatra provinces.
Minister Antoni stated that based on the monitoring results, the forest fires as of today are considered controlled.
He attributed this success to the cooperation and collaboration among various parties, as well as a willingness to learn from previous years’ forest fire experiences.
“Alhamdulillah, once again, the forest fires as of today are well under control,” Minister Antoni remarked after the meeting.
Despite this positive development, Minister Antoni issued a reminder based on data from BMKG and BNPB, indicating a warning for several provinces during the first ten days of August.
This is due to low rainfall and high levels of land dryness, which present a high potential for forest fires.
“However, as reminded by the Head of BNPB and the Head of BMKG, the first ten days of August are a ‘warning’ for almost all provinces. This is due to a combination of factors: low rainfall, low or difficult cloud formation potential, and high land dryness levels, leading to a high potential for forest fires,” Minister Antoni explained.
“During the first ten days of August, we must work hand-in-hand to prevent any potential for forest fires,” he added.
During the meeting, the Minister received reports on the forest fire conditions and the efforts undertaken for their management, both on the ground with the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI), Indonesian National Police (Polri), Manggala Agni, and BNPB, as well as aerial interventions through Weather Modification Operations (OMC) and helicopter water bombing.
“Our success is due to cooperation, coordination, and collaboration, and our ability to dismantle sectoral egos between ministries, institutions, and regions.
With the spirit that forest and land fires are our shared problem, we must therefore work together to face this.
Additionally, our success is due to effective law enforcement, which has created a deterrent effect on financiers, landowners, and individuals who engage in arson,” said the Minister.
Concurring with the Minister, Head of BNPB, Lieutenant General Suharyanto, also elaborated on the ongoing efforts.
He stated that under the leadership of Minister Raja Antoni, the 2025 forest fire management operations in Riau have been conducted in an integrated manner.
“For one week, the Minister of Forestry led the forest fire management operation in Riau, and it has been extinguished until now. This is because everything was integrated, both ground operations, OMC, and aerial operations,” Suharyanto concluded. (*)
