JAKARTA – Forest and land fires (Karhutla) hit a number of palm oil producing regions amid the prolonged dry season as the impact of El Nino in Indonesia. But there has been no case of Karhutla found in the oil palm plantation areas owned by member companies of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI).
“There has been no reports of Karhutla cases in plantation areas from our member companies,” GAPKI Chairman Eddy Martono said on Tuesday during a press conference on the event of the Indonesian Palm Oil Conference (IPOC) 2023, which will be held in Bali on 1 – 3 November 2023.
Eddy Martono admitted that currently GAPKI has been focusing its attention on the Karhutla issues and member companies have taken a number of steps to anticipate and prevent such disasters.
“We keep monitoring our members. We ask them to take all necessary measures to prevent the Karhutla cases. They are not only committed to securing their own plantation areas, but also their surrounding areas,” he said.
At the same occasion, GAPKI Secretary General Hadi Sugeng said that GAPKI has sent a circular letter to all member companies, asking them to take preventive steps. “Then we monitor them from time to time, to ensure that they implement all of technical guidelines and strategies in dealing with the Karhutla. I can say that so far there is no case of fires in the plantation areas of GAPKI member companies,” he said.
According to Hadi Sugeng, all GAPKI members pay attention to the potential Karhutla. They have prepared all necessary facilities and equipment to deal with the fires and they set up fire care communities.
They also trained local people around the plantation areas to anticipate and tackle the problems of Karhutla. “Recently, GAPKI has collaborated with the National Research and Innovation Board (BRIN) and the Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Board (BMKG) to implement a weather modification technology in Central Kalimantan (Kalteng). Alhamdulillah (Thanks God), due to the implementation of weather modification, it rained in Kalteng,” he said.
GAPKI South Kalimantan (Kalsel) Office also held a standby call to tackle the fires in Kalsel. “Based on data, plantations in Kalsel saw a relatively longer dry season if compared to other plantations in other regions,” he said. (*)
Source: sawitkita.id
