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Hotspots flare up as Indonesia expects drier dry season
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Smoldering peatland is pictured in Kampar, Riau province, on Sept. 17, 2019. (AFP/Adek Berry)
L
and and forest fires have started to flare up in several regions in the country during the peak of the La Nina-affected rainy season, signaling a return of the fires even though the dry season has yet to start.
Several provinces have reported instances of fires since January, most notably Riau and West Kalimantan.
Riau Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) recorded on Monday forest fires covering up to 650 hectares of land in 10 out of 12 regencies and cities in the province, Antara reported. These include fires burning 100 ha of forest inside the UNESCO-recognized Giam Siak Kecil-Bukit Batu biosphere, according to kompas.com.
Overall, authorities have reported 173 instances of land and forest fires in Riau, Aceh, North Sumatra, Jambi, South Sumatra, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, North Sulawesi and Papua in January alone, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD told a disaster-mitigation meeting last week.
Satellite surveillance by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Lapan) detected seven hotspots across the archipelago in January and 153 last month, slightly lower than the 90 and 156 hotspots detected in the same period last year.
But environmentalists warn against complacency over forest fires, as the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) predicts that this year’s dry season will return to its normal characteristic -- that is drier -- when the effects of the La Nina phenomenon wear off by May.
The dry season will start around June and September in most parts of the country, with low to moderate monthly average precipitation between 20 and 150 millimeters expected.
