Enviro News Asia, Riau – As the dry season approaches, the government is making significant efforts to suppress forest and land fire incidents. To achieve this, the central government, regional governments, the military (TNI), police (Polri), various ministries/agencies, and other stakeholders are uniting and acting under a single command and shared goal: to reduce the number of forest and land fires.
“As a strategic step and reinforcement, the government, private sector, and communities must work hand-in-hand, collaborate, and unite to enhance mitigation and prevent forest and land fires,” said the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Police General (Ret.) Budi Gunawan, during the 2025 National Forest and Land Fire Disaster Preparedness Roll Call held in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Tuesday (April 29, 2025).
According to data from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), integrated with satellite data from the Ministry of Forestry and the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), this year’s dry season will begin gradually across regions from April through September 2025.
Based on NASA’s Terra Aqua satellite data, as of April 17, 2025, there were 144 high-confidence hotspots. Field data also indicates 97 forest and land fire incidents (karhutla), with Riau alone recording 80 hectares in emergency fire conditions.
The Coordinating Minister noted that regions affected so far include Aceh, Riau, Riau Islands, Jambi, West Kalimantan, and Central Kalimantan.
“Mitigation and prevention efforts can and should start as early as possible, including weather modification for rain starting May 1, water bombing, helicopter patrols, filling water reservoirs, ditches, and canals, as well as maintaining water table levels in peatlands,” Budi Gunawan explained.
Present at the roll call were Minister of Forestry Raja Juli Antoni, BNPB Chief Lt. Gen. TNI Suharyanto, Riau Governor Abdul Wahid, BMKG Head Dwikorita Karnawati, Deputy Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Lt. Gen. TNI (Ret.) Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus, Coordinating Ministry Secretary Lt. Gen. TNI M. Hasan, and representatives from relevant ministries and agencies.
Following the National Forest and Land Fire Disaster Preparedness Troop and Equipment Roll Call at Roesmin Nurjadin Air Base in Pekanbaru, Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni expressed his appreciation for the significant downward trend in forest and land fire cases over the past few years.
Nevertheless, he stressed the importance for provincial governments and all stakeholders to remain highly vigilant, especially ahead of the peak of this year’s dry season.
“We can be quite proud that the trend of fire cases has shown a year-on-year decline. The hard work of all our colleagues has paid off. This is an achievement we should be grateful for, but it must not lead to complacency or overconfidence,” he said.
Raja Juli presented data showing that the burned area decreased in 2024 to around 370,000 hectares, significantly lower than the 1.1 million hectares recorded in 2023.
“In fact, during the El Niño phenomenon in 2023, the number of fires still declined compared to the previous four years,” he noted.
