EduAsiaNews, Jakarta — Preventing forest and land fires in peatland ecosystems requires a comprehensive approach, as such fires are influenced by a wide range of technical and non-technical factors. Each fire incident should also be objectively verified before being attributed to a particular party or considered to have provided economic benefits to a company.
IPB University Professor Prof. Budi Indra Setiawan said that peatland fires cannot be explained by a single factor. From a technical perspective, fires occur when a heat source or ignition, fuel, and oxygen are present, particularly when peatlands become dry during the dry season.
“Peatland fires are a complex issue. Lower groundwater levels, dry weather conditions, reduced peat moisture, abundant surface fuel, wind speed, and the presence of ignition sources can interact with one another and increase the risk of fire,” Prof. Budi Indra said in response to media inquiries in Jakarta.
According to Budi, peatlands that lose moisture become highly flammable. Fires can also spread underground and persist for extended periods, making them difficult to detect and extinguish solely through surface firefighting.
Therefore, technical prevention measures should include maintaining groundwater levels, managing canals and canal blocks, providing water reservoirs and other water sources, monitoring peat moisture, and ensuring that firefighting equipment is available in fire-prone areas.
Weather conditions, hotspots, and field conditions should also be monitored in an integrated manner using satellite imagery, groundwater-level sensors, observation towers, ground patrols, and unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. Such information must be followed by a rapid response, as small fires are easier to control before they spread.
“Monitoring technology is extremely helpful, but hotspot data must still be verified directly in the field. Not every hotspot represents a fire, and not every fire can be immediately detected by satellites, particularly when the fire is burning beneath the peat surface,” Budi said.
In addition to technical factors, Prof. Budi noted that forest and land fire prevention is also influenced by non-technical factors, including human behavior, land-clearing practices, limited alternatives to slash-and-burn methods, land tenure issues, tenure conflicts, community welfare, and coordination among stakeholders.
Therefore, patrols and firefighting efforts should be accompanied by public education, community economic empowerment, the provision of no-burn land-clearing technologies, stronger village institutions, and continuous risk communication.
Meanwhile, soil expert Dr. Basuki Sumawinata said that any information claiming that a company benefited from a forest or land fire must be tested through field verification and scientific evidence-based investigation.
According to Basuki, the presence of a fire hotspot within or around a concession area is not sufficient to determine the cause, perpetrator, or motive behind a fire.
A thorough investigation should examine the fire’s point of origin, wind direction, soil type, land-use history, vegetation conditions, area boundaries, access routes to the site, patrol records, and the response measures that have been undertaken.
“A clear distinction must be made between the location where a fire occurred, the cause of the fire, the party that started the fire, and the party responsible for controlling it. Conclusions should not be drawn based on a single piece of information or simply because a fire was found within a particular area,” Basuki said.
Basuki added that for forestry companies developing plantation forests, trees represent assets and sources of raw materials that require substantial investment and approximately five years before they can be harvested.
