PALMOILMAGAZINE, CENTRAL KALIMANTAN – According to President’s Instruction Number 3 / 2020, WMT is part of national strategy to mitigate and prevent the fire in the forests and areas. It would involve every stakeholder, such as, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Geophysics, Climatology, and Meteorology Agency (BMKG), Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), Indonesian Palm Oil Association (IPOA), and local stakeholders.
This year many regions in Indonesia would be in total dry because of El Nino cycle. The natural phenomenon could raise fire in the forests and areas, including in bushes, peat, and abandoned ones.
To mitigate the risks of fire in the forests and areas, Indonesian Palm Oil Association (IPOA) Central Kalimantan conducted Weather Modification Technology (WMT) with the (local) government.
Also Read : Mitigating Forest and Area Fire Risks
Chairman in Environment and Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (Department) IPOA Central Kalimantan, Sutto Suwahyo said, IPOA is committed to take other stakeholders as early as possible to mitigate the risks of fire in the forest and areas, such as, by preparing infrastructures in every member of IPOA, educating the people and smallholders around the companies’ operational, and also conducting WMT when El Nino still occurs.
“We do evaluation and monitoring every region in Central Kalimantan Province every day. From the evaluation, it would be decided where the regions are vulnerable to be prioritized to conduct WMT. We do not want that the fire happens again. Before it happens, we actively do prevention,” Sutto mentioned as in the official statement to Palmoilmagazine.com, Monday (28/8/2023).
WMT is a program by the government to mitigate extreme hot weather risk because of El Nino. IPOA Central Kalimantan also supported the local government to realize WMT for six days, or from 25 to 30 August 2023. The targets were the regions with lowest humidity level or very dry level.
Also Read : Safeguarding Against Forest and Land Fires in the Era of ‘Global Boiling’
Data from Ministry of Environment and Forestry showed that the province and Riau are the vulnerable provinces with fire cases. Data from BRIN showed that in August there have been more than 60 hotspots in Central Kalimantan.
“In history the rain in Central Kalimantan by 24 August 2023 got less compared to the average history. This also showed, El Nino really influences in the province. It is also hoped, WMT would minimize not only the hotspots, but would be zero hotspot in Central Kalimantan,” Field Coordinator of Central Kalimantan WMT, Chandra Fadlillah said. (T2)
