TANGERANG — Dompet Dhuafa’s Disaster Management Center (DMC) will prepare a mitigation agenda to deal with the threat of forest and land fires and drought due to El Nino. Through discussions with Prof. Dr. Bambang Hero Saharjo, a Professor of Forest Protection from the Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) University, who is also the Regional Director of the Forest Fire Management Resource Center-Southeast Asia (RFMRC-SEA), several recommendations were found at the meeting held online on Tuesday (6/6/2023).
Previously, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency predicted that the 2023 dry season would be drier than the past three years. This is due to La Nina conditions from 2020 to 2022, which impact the wet climate, and the intensity begins to weaken. This prediction is corroborated by the potential for El Niño or warming sea level temperatures by up to 60 percent.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Petteri Taalas warned that El Niño in 2023 will likely cause a new global warming spike and increase the chances of record-breaking temperatures worsening. Meanwhile, the Head of BMKG said that the beginning of the dry season in some areas is predicted to occur in April and spread throughout the region from May to August 2023.
The areas that are predicted to experience a dry season nature below normal or become drier, namely in northern Aceh, parts of Sumatra, northern Riau, southern Sumatra, most of Java, Bali, parts of Nusa Tenggara, southern Kalimantan, parts of Sulawesi, North Maluku, southern West Papua, and southern Papua.
“In addition to Indonesia, fires also occurred in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Canada, and California, “added Prof. Bambang.
The fires generally do not only occur due to drought but are often also caused by human hands.
“Forest and land fires are man-made. Findings in the field are also human actions, “continued Prof. Bambang.
Therefore, it is rather difficult to formulate a fire as a disaster. But forest fires then cause disasters, one of which is a smoke disaster that can occur in a protracted time and never end. This smoke disaster caused losses, both materially and physically. Such as the cessation of teaching and learning activities, offices, and even delayed flights.
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Like the forest and land fires that occurred in 1997 in Indonesia. The massive forest fires have consumed 10 to 11 million hectares of land and an estimated 8 provinces in Indonesia with 12 million people are also threatened. As many as 36 thousand people undergo outpatient treatment, 15 thousand hospitalizations, 2 million people are hampered by their work, 4 million people find it difficult to carry out daily activities.
It is also known that the fire claimed up to 500 deaths, 58 thousand contracted bronchitis, 298 thousand contracted asthma, and 1 million people contracted ARI (Acute Respiratory Infection).
“In the smoke of the peat fires, we detected 90 gases and a terrible 50 gases are toxic to humans. One is furan gas, still in the same group as dioxin. So if pregnant women inhale this gas, their children will experience physical abnormalities, “concluded Prof. Bambang.
In the end, forest and land fires are in a circle that endangers human life. These fires contribute to gas emissions which then impact climate change until, finally, this increases the risk to the environment and humans, resulting in the emergence of forest and land fires.
“Forest and land fires in Indonesia occur almost every year and they are carried out by humans, so in fact, the control activities are carried out from the beginning, and do not have to wait for El-Nino to be present and then seriously handle it,” said Prof. Bambang.
“It is certain that the cause of forest and land fires in Indonesia is man-made. For this reason, prevention, blackout, and handling activities can be carried out,” he continued.
Arif Rahmadi Haryono as Chief Executive Officer of DMC Dompet Dhuafa will prepare recommendations for intervention programs to face and intensify preparedness for potential droughts and forest fires in Indonesia.
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“Many people say the drought this year is large and long enough with the peak predicted in August. Of course, with such a disaster, there will be risks of drought and forest fires that may follow the effects of the drought that occurs, “said Arif.
“For this reason, DMC Dompet Dhuafa wants to deepen and also wants to discuss further how much impact drought and forest fires have the potential to occur this year and maybe we can deepen and manage so that we can all be more prepared and alert to reduce the impact or casualties that occur,” he continued.
On a different occasion, Ahmad Baihaqi as Community Resilience and Advocacy Manager of DMC Dompet Dhuafa added that each DMC Dompet Dhuafa Department will intensify the plans for these programs.
“We have made an action plan in each DMC Department of Dompet Dhuafa. We will encourage DMC Dompet Dhuafa for the squad team to face forest and land fires (karhutla) and droughts,” Ahmad said via text message.
DMC Dompet Dhuafa’s Community Resilience and Advocacy Department will map areas that have the potential to experience drought and forest and land fires, map evacuation routes, evacuation gathering points, and determine assisted area interventions.
Meanwhile, through the Department of Humanity Academy, DMC Dompet Dhuafa will train communities and volunteers to increase drought and forest and land fire preparedness capacity by containing local wisdom.
Then, the Respone-Recovery Department will prepare volunteer partners netted in each area vulnerable to forest and land fires in Indonesia. In addition, improving and preparing adequate tools for forest and land extinguishing actions.
In addition, there are also recommendations for the creation of borewells close to areas prone to forest and land fires. Given that it is at the point of fire vulnerability, it is usually difficult to access water for extinguishing.
All program interventions will focus on the role of local community actors in the region. Community involvement is an important aspect in disaster management because they are the main and foremost actors in helping the surrounding communities.
“Especially for the community, it is appropriate for them to be given a wise solution and treated as partners and not sparring partners in forest and land fire control,” concluded Prof. Bambang.
DMC Dompet Dhuafa invites all communities and authorities to participate in the disaster management movement in Indonesia. Because the Earth is Only One, It’s Time for Indonesia to Be Empowered to Face Disasters. (Dompet Dhuafa/AFP/DMC Dompet Dhuafa)