Prioritizing preventive measures against forest fires

The Indonesian authorities have claimed that the number of forest fires had reduced some 85 percent over the past several years.

Thanks to the significant reduction, no neighboring countries had lodged complaint over the past few years as their countries were not free from haze usually exported by wildfires in Indonesia.

Despite that achievement, however, some Rp1 trillion had to be spent for fighting wildfires on peatlands in South Sumatra province last year, Chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Board (BNPB) Lt. Gen. Doni Monardo said on March 12, 2019.

In view of the high cost, he felt it was necessary to familiarize the public with the effort to preempt wildfires

It is better to prevent wildfires by familiarizing people nearby on how to tackle fires before they inflict losses worth hundreds of billions of rupiahs, he added.