Rains prevent Jambi forest fires from spreading

Jon Afrizal ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jambi   |  Sat, 07/04/2009 12:59 PM  |  The Archipelago

Forest fires have been subsiding across Jambi, following recent rains across the ravaged province.

The latest data shows only one to three hot spots were detected during the last several days, after recent downpours.

Last month, the North Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) satellite imaging picked up as many as 167 hot spots across nine of the 11 regencies in Jambi.

At least 46 of the hot spots were in Tebo regency, with 38 in Sarolangun regency, 29 in Bungo regency and 20 in Merangin regency.

As of January, a total of 392 hot spots have been detected, 167 of them in June and 91 in May.

"The friendly weather has helped prevent the forest fires spreading further," Frans Tandipau, secretary of the Jambi Forest and Peatland Fire Response Center (Pusdalkarlahut), said Friday.

However, he said his agency was continuing to activate its local units to mitigate and prevent fires from spreading.

Frans said his center sent a final tally of hot spot monitoring results every day to every regency and municipality affected by fires.

Unfortunately, he said, none of the regency administrations had responded to the center's reports, so it could not be confirmed whether the fires had been extinguished.

Should regency forestry offices be unable to extinguish the fires, the provincial forestry office will send its Manggala Agni squad to put them out, Frans added.

The Manggala Agni teams, available at four locations, are currently on alert for forest fires.

Frans said the center could not determine whether the forest fires in Jambi were deliberately set by local people, as they clear-cut forests in a slash-and-burn method to open up land for farming.

"We're still investigating," he said.

Jambi Conservation and Natural Resources Agency head Didy Wurjanto said his office had deployed a team of 210 personnel over the last 30 days to put out fires in protected forests.

Jambi Governor Zulkifli Nurdin warned recently that forest and peatland fires would have adverse impacts on local communities.

He pointed out fires affected the agriculture, forestry and other sectors, causes health hazards for people, and severely damaged the ecosystem in huge swaths of forests.

However, Zulkifli pointed out forest fires had gradually dropped in number over the past several years in Jambi.

In 2006, 6,692 hot spots were detected, while in 2007 that figure had dropped to 2,782.

It surged again in 2008, with 20,010 hotspots detected.

"Despite the significant drop *between 2006 and 2007*, forest fire management and coordination remains weak," the governor said.

He added forest fire handling was subject to human resources, equipment and funding constraints. He said the best way to reduce the number of hot spots was to develop the rural communities' human resources capacity.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.