TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo highlighted Indonesia’s achievement in fighting forest fires in the 7th Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2022 on Wednesday, May 25. He reported that the largest forest fires experienced by the archipelago occurred in 1997-1998 which scorched 10 million hectares of land.

“Indonesia has succeeded in reducing forest fires from 2.6 million hectares (in 2015) to only 358,000 hectares in 2021,” said the President at the international forum held in Bali, Wednesday.

He explained that a number of efforts have been made to reduce the number of forest fires. Until 2021, Indonesia has restored 3.4 million hectares of peatland as well as maintained and revitalized 3.3 million hectares of mangrove forest, which covers 20 percent of the global mangrove area.

The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction is an international forum aimed at accelerating the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, a global collaboration to overcome disasters agreed in Sendai, Japan, on March 18, 2015.

The state head also mentioned that Indonesia is a disaster-prone country. As of May 23, 2022, the country recorded 1,613 disasters.

With these conditions, Jokowi reminded all that disaster preparedness will highly determine the number of losses in the future. Thus, the former Jakarta governor offered the concept of sustainable resilience in dealing with disasters to the forum.

FAJAR PEBRIANTO

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