TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsCan't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
The use of fire in swidden agriculture is not as simple as just burning down the forest. It presents an interconnected relationship between ecological knowledge and socialcultural values. However, swiddening communities are often accused as being one of the contributors to catastrophic fires in Indonesia. In addition, they often become victims of reactive fire policies (e.g. the prohibition of using fire).
According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Indonesia has experienced 1,226 forest fires in the last 10 years. Many companies have been penalized by the court but the number of forest fires have only increased, suggesting hardly any deterrence effect on the companies.
Protection of forest land inside and outside state forest calls for the strategic roles and strong collaboration of national and local governments, private sector, NGOs and local communities. It is also time for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, our leading forester who graduated from forestry studies, to make innovative approaches and actions to save our remaining forest.
Peatland was there long before people settled in the area, and that peatland is flammable. People, therefore, have to adjust themselves to the circumstances. So, there have to be constant efforts to remind people of these facts. Vulnerability should be translated into caution, being aware that the daily practices of people could harm the peatland, exposing themselves to dangerous situations leading to suffering. The constant reminder or awareness-raising process is a way to form a new “habitus”.
A study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago estimated that residents of Sumatra and Kalimantan risk having their life expectancy shaved off by four years on average due to exposure to dangerous particulate matter caused by the haze.
