President Jokowi again held a limited meeting on Tuesday, 23 June 2020 at the Merdeka Palace to discuss the anticipation of forest and land fires in 2020.
At the limited meeting, Jokowi presented notes from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) which stated that 17 percent of Indonesia's territory had entered the dry season in April, 38 percent in May, and 27 percent in June.
Therefore, President Jokowi gave several directions to anticipate forest and land fires:
First, field management must be consolidated and coordinated. Moreover, the President said that the use of technology to monitor and supervise hotspot-prone areas and to update the information is important.
Second, the President reminded the responsible agencies to immediately extinguish the fire before it spreads. The President also asked for help from governors, heads of districts, mayors, regional military commanders, territory military commanders, district military commanders, provincial police chiefs, and district/city police chiefs so that they can respond quickly to forest and land fires.
Third, the President asked that law enforcement must be firm and without compromise in resolving the issue of forest and land fires. Because 99 percent of forest and land fires are caused by human activity, whether intentional or not.
Fourth, the President also asked for consistent management of the peat ecosystem to prevent fires on peatlands. He said that various technologies, such as canal blocking, reservoirs, drilled wells, and other wetting technologies have been carried out by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the Peat Restoration Agency (BRG), and the Ministry of Public Works. However, he reminded us to make the implementation more consistent.