Kharishar Kahfi | 14 August 2019
The Jakarta Post
Indonesia is currently on the brink of another haze crisis as the archipelago is seeing an increase in the number of forest and land fires. According to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the number of hot spots increased to 2,002 on Aug. 9 from 1,586 on Aug. 7 and 1,025 on Aug. 3. The hot spots were largely detected in the provinces of Riau, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.
Apart from the hot spots, wildfires also burned more land area. The Environment and Forestry Ministry recorded wildfires had burned 42,740 hectares of land across the country between January and May — nearly twice the area burned in the corresponding period last year, which was 23,745 ha. This occurred roughly three years after Indonesia started ramping up efforts to mitigate the impacts of forest and land fires across the country,