http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/10/17/your-letters-recurrent-peat-and-forest-fires.html
Your letters: Recurrent
peat and forest fires
| Readers Forum | Fri, October 17 2014, 9:41 AM
The many years of recurrent peat fires in this country have not provided a lesson to stakeholders, most notably the government.
The government seems very keen to employ reactive and inappropriate suppressive measures when dealing with peat fires in many areas in Indonesia. Many of these suppressive measures have proven costly and waste time, with disappointing results on the ground.
The procurement and mobilization of firefighting equipment is useless and will not effectively suppress fires on peatland areas that are well known for their remoteness and inaccessibility.
Such equipment will yield no results when fires occur in the interior peat forest areas where road access and water sources are not sufficiently available.
Mobile suppressive measures will only put out peat fires if certain conditions are met, for instance, adequate road access for heavy equipment, sufficient surface water sources for suppression on the ground, as well as ready and skillful fire brigades.
Unless those conditions are met, the procured equipment will not work effectively on the field.
Therefore, rather than focusing too much on suppression strategies, it would be worthwhile for the government to think of ways to prevent fires, for instance by promoting peat rewetting programs throughout the country by blocking open canals within degraded peats so as to maintain and elevate groundwater and surface water tables during the dry period.
The government needs to implement a land swap policy by moving out all fire-based economic activities in peatland areas to other type of lands (mineral soil); enforcing existing law firmly on those who start fires and raising awareness among all stakeholders on the importance of protecting the peat swamp ecosystem and its likely negative impacts if managed improperly (haze-related problems, economic, health and other social
costs that we should bear if we neglect sustainable peatland management principles).
Alue Dohong
Central Kalimantan
The government seems very keen to employ reactive and inappropriate suppressive measures when dealing with peat fires in many areas in Indonesia. Many of these suppressive measures have proven costly and waste time, with disappointing results on the ground.
The procurement and mobilization of firefighting equipment is useless and will not effectively suppress fires on peatland areas that are well known for their remoteness and inaccessibility.
Such equipment will yield no results when fires occur in the interior peat forest areas where road access and water sources are not sufficiently available.
Mobile suppressive measures will only put out peat fires if certain conditions are met, for instance, adequate road access for heavy equipment, sufficient surface water sources for suppression on the ground, as well as ready and skillful fire brigades.
Unless those conditions are met, the procured equipment will not work effectively on the field.
Therefore, rather than focusing too much on suppression strategies, it would be worthwhile for the government to think of ways to prevent fires, for instance by promoting peat rewetting programs throughout the country by blocking open canals within degraded peats so as to maintain and elevate groundwater and surface water tables during the dry period.
The government needs to implement a land swap policy by moving out all fire-based economic activities in peatland areas to other type of lands (mineral soil); enforcing existing law firmly on those who start fires and raising awareness among all stakeholders on the importance of protecting the peat swamp ecosystem and its likely negative impacts if managed improperly (haze-related problems, economic, health and other social
costs that we should bear if we neglect sustainable peatland management principles).
Alue Dohong
Central Kalimantan
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