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Higher forest fires risk as Indonesia heads to potentially dry 2023
The government is expecting that this year will be drier compared to the past three years, which might translate to higher risk of forest fires than the previous years.
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A firefighter tries to douse a forest fire in Senunuk village in Kapuas Hulu regency, West Kalimantan, which abuts Malaysia, on Aug. 10. (Antara/Kapuas Hulu Disaster Mitigation Agency)
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he government is expecting that this year will be drier compared to the past three years, which might translate to a higher risk of forest fires than in previous years.
Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) head Dwikorita Karnawati said that the El Nino Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole were expected to be on their neutral phases in 2023, meaning the archipelago will see less rainfall compared to 2022.
Dwikorita said that from the start of the year until June the potential for fire hotspots would be relatively low; however, the dry season in August to September could pose higher risk of forest fires compared to the dry seasons of 2020 to 2022, which were relatively wet.
“Specifically, we need to watch out for the potential for fires in northern parts of Sumatra, such as North Sumatra, Riau and [Special Region of] Aceh in February 2023,” Dwikorita said during a coordination meeting on land and forest fires hosted by the Environment and Forestry Ministry on Wednesday.
According to government data, about 202,617 hectares (ha) of land and forest were burned between January to November, compared to 358,867 ha throughout 2021 and 296,942 ha in 2020.
Indonesia also recorded the lowest rate of deforestation in the last two decades to around 113,500 ha per year between 2020-2021.
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said that throughout 2022, land and forest fires were under control while deforestation kept declining despite pessimism from international institutions about Indonesia’s methods in counting deforestation.
