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Govt continues to fight 11 forest fires in Sumatra, Kalimantan
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Burned down – An aerial picture shows land fires in Batu Panjang, Rupat district, Bengkalis regency. The government has continued to fight 11 forest fires ravaging parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan. (Courtesy of the Riau Land and Forest Fire Post’s air task force/-)
The government is still trying to extinguish 11 forest fires ravaging parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, a minister says.
Out of the total 11 fires, seven were located in West Sumatra, North Sumatra, Jambi and South Sumatra, while the rest were situated in areas between West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said. Some of the fires swept deep forests, she added.
"In Dharmasraya, West Sumatra, the fire was located in a remote area. We will use a [fire fighting] helicopter to handle it," Siti said at the State Palace on Wednesday.
The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has predicted that 2017 will be drier than 2016. Some forest fires have even already started to occur this month.
(Read also: Govt deploys 3,500 personnel to fight forest fires in W. Kalimantan)
Indonesia, home to the world’s third-largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon and Congo Basin, has struggled to address recurrent forest fires happening during the dry season, partly caused by burning to expand plantations.
Siti further said that apart from fighting the ongoing forest fires, the government would monitor 116 hot spots in Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra, which have two dry seasons each year, namely from January to March and July to October.
She also expressed her appreciation on the quicker response of local communities compared to last year as well as better interprovincial coordination in managing fires located in border zones. (lnd)
