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Governor declares fire alert after heavy damage
Following two forest fires on the slope of Mt
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ollowing two forest fires on the slope of Mt. Lawu in Ngawi regency on Saturday, and in Jipurapah subdistrict, Plandaan, Jombang, on Wednesday, the East Java provincial administration has declared a fire alert.
Governor Soekarwo said throughout the dry season, the region's forest areas were being increasingly gutted by fires. The affected areas spanned more than 1.3 million hectares, with 700,000 hectares heavily damaged, including 160 hectares located inside protected forests.
"We planned to carry out replanting activities on Oct. 2 to but two forests were on fire before we could do so," Soekarwo said in Surabaya on Wednesday.
He added his administration had been able to control the two forest fi res so far, and had asked local police to conduct a thorough investigation into the cases as the fires in both places were reportedly due to human error.
"We have been informed that the fires were caused by cigarette butts and charcoal-making activities in the woods," he said.
As of Thursday, officials were still trying to extinguish the fires on the northern slope of Mt. Lawu. More than 1,300 hectares have reportedly been severely burnt down by the fire that has also reached Karanganyar regency in the neighboring Central Java province.
The fires in Jipurapah, on Wednesday, reportedly have also burnt down hundreds of hectares of teakwood forest in the subdistrict.
Soekarwo said to help preven other forest fires from happening, his administration had also asked law enforcement apparatus, the state-owned forest management company Perum Perhutani and respective regency heads to closely monitor and ban charcoal production activities in the woods.
"It's time for Perum Perhutani and the regency administrations to ask and empower every element in the community to participate in forest preservation," he said.
The Kaliandra Sejati Foundation's community development officer, Fathurohman, said that lack of integration among the stakeholders, which included the public, regional administrations, NGOs and the private sector, had contributed a great deal to forest damage.
"The regional administration, for example, can involve drinking water companies, whose products highly depend on the forest, as doing so will also help the companies sustain their business," Fathurohman told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
He added that involving the private sector would likely help create jobs for charcoal makers, which would provide them with another source of income and thus discourage them from their destructive activities.
"If they are banned from producing charcoal now, they will lose their jobs and could become trapped in criminal acts such as robbery and illegal logging. They need new jobs," he said.
Charcoal-making activities are also evident on the slope of Mt. Arjuno, Pasuruan regency, a practice that has been carried out for decades. There is a village in the area in which the sole occupation is charcoal-making.
A kilogram of charcoal is usually sold for Rp 500 in the region.
Such activities have also led to decreased water resources in Mt. Arjuno, which has been the catchment area for the 14 regencies/municipalities in East Java, with a total population of 22 million, or 60 percent of that of the province.
