Study Of The sources and Community Responses To Prevent and Suppress Forest Fires In Indonesia

SETIYANTO, SINGGIH RUDI ,

2013 | Tesis | S2 MEP

Forest fires are the main cause of forest destruction that can interfere with forest conservation. Forest fires that happen annually have become serious forest management problems in Indonesia. The fires cause huge losses of forest and land resources, socioeconomic conditions, and losses due to smoke pollution in the neighboring countries. The majority of wildfires are caused by human factors because of their interaction with forest activities. Appropriate and unambiguous policies and regulations on land and forest fire management are needed in order to prevent disastrous fires and to reduce the adverse effects of fires on forest resources and environment. The purpose of this study is to examine the causes and sources of forest fires, identify the problems of managing forest fires in Indonesia, and find solutions to surpress the fires and their effects on the people living around the forests. That knowledge will eventually be used to make suggestions for policy makers to reduce forest fires and their effects. The cause of the forest fires is not only a single human activity, operating independently, because a single human activity is not a significant cause of the forest fire.. The study shows that only the number of visitors to National Parks have a significant corellation with forest fires. People surrounding the forests agree that fire prevention is more important than fire suppression but are reluctant to give up the slash and burn method of land clearing because it is the most convenient and inexpensive method. Communities hope that government will increase counseling on fire prevention and introduce a new method to open and clear the land without burning.

Kata Kunci : Forest fires, cause and effects, impacts