Satellite Imagery Shows Jambi is Experiencing Rapid Deforestation
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20 December 2019 08:24 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Landsat 8 satellite imagery obtained by the Indonesian conservation community (KKI Warsi) shows Jambi's tree cover area only constitutes 900,000 hectares or 17 percent of Jambi Province's entire 50,160 square kilometers.
The forest cover in the province has been reduced by 20,000 hectares compared to the same satellite imagery taken back in 2017.
“This number shows the ecosystem balance in Jambi is at a very worrying level,” said KKI Director Warsi, Rudi Syah on Thursday, December 19.
The province’s forest cover decline is due to a number of issues such as illegal drilling, illegal gold mining activities, and forest fires that were rampant in the past couple of years. However, forest fires were mainly responsible for the massive forest degradation.
In 2019 alone, the area affected by forest fires was 157,137 hectares with 30,947 hot spots. Among many types of land, corporate concession lands dominated the fires that happened. Compared to 2015, Jambi Province’s forest cover experienced a massive 246,667-hectare reduction with 1,147,380 hectares in 2015 and 900,713 hectares in 2019.
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