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A lesson from Jambi: Don't play with fire!

In March this year, Jambi governor launched a regulation completely banning fire in the province — a first in Indonesia.

Moazzam Malik (The Jakarta Post)
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Jakarta
Fri, July 14, 2017

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A lesson from Jambi: Don't play with fire! Residents try to extinguish forest fires in Pekanbaru, Riau. Fires razed the area in mid- January. (Antara/Rony Muharman)

I

n March this year, Zumi Zola, the Jambi governor, launched a regulation completely banning fire in the province — a first in Indonesia. Whilst challenging to implement, it is a major step in the fight against fire, haze, and climate change.

Indonesia has 70 percent of the world’s tropical peatlands and the world’s thirst largest tropical rainforest. When cleared for agricultural use, these natural resources release vast quantities of CO2. And when drained, peatlands become liable to catch fire; and once lit, can burn for months.

Two million and six hundred thousand hectares of land burned between June and October 2015 — an area four and half times the size of Bali. More than 100,000 man-made fires in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua were flamed by drought and the El Niño weather pattern. Many of the fires burned out of control for months on tropical peatland.

Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions are already the world’s fifth largest with 80 percent coming from the land and forest sector. In 2015, Indonesia briefly became the greatest emitter in large part due to peat fires. The crisis cost Indonesia at least US$16 billion or 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) — more than twice the reconstruction cost following the Aceh tsunami and earthquake.

Fire and toxic smoke closed businesses, obstructed transport routes and significantly reduced agricultural productivity. It severely disrupted the lives of millions of people for months on end, causing acute respiratory illness for 500,000 people, premature death for thousands of others, and kept children out of school for weeks.

Regional and global impacts pushed the costs still higher as the transboundary haze sparked tensions with and created economic costs for neighboring ASEAN countries.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo promised to address fire and toxic smoke issues once and for all following the 2015 crisis. He created the Peat Restoration Agency (BRG) to re-wet 2 million hectares of degraded peatlands; set up a community based fire prevention task force for more than 700 fire-prone villages, and prosecuted 105 companies for fire incidents. And in December 2016, the President signed a moratorium on new licenses on peatland. The government also ratified the Paris agreement on climate change, committing Indonesia to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 29 percent by 2030.

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  • Central Jakarta
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