TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Prabowo Subianto urged firefighters in the central and regional areas to remain vigilant against forest and land fires as the dry season will continue until the end of August 2025. The drought has the potential to increase the risk of fires in several regions.
Prabowo's request was conveyed by Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya. "The central and regional firefighting teams are asked to remain vigilant," said Teddy in an official statement on Sunday, August 3, 2025.
Teddy said that Prabowo made this appeal during a limited meeting with the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Budi Gunawan, Minister of Forestry Raja Juli, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander General Agus Subiyanto, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya, Indonesian Army Chief of Staff General Maruli Simanjuntak, and several other officials. The meeting took place at Prabowo's residence in Hambalang, West Java, on Sunday, August 3, 2025.
According to Teddy, Prabowo chaired the limited meeting virtually to discuss the latest developments in handling and preventing forest and land fires in various areas of Indonesia. The main topic was the evaluation of efforts to combat forest and land fires and anticipatory measures to face the peak of the dry season.
Teddy said the government logged a decrease in the number of fires this year compared to the previous year. In 2024, at least 376,805 hectares of land were burned. This year, the number has decreased to 8,955 hectares, or about 33.3 percent annually.
The President expressed appreciation for the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the forest and land fire control team in the field. Teddy said the government continues to push for law enforcement against perpetrators of forest and land burning.
Based on the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) forecast, several areas in Indonesia will reach the peak of the dry season in August 2025. These areas include most of Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), as well as parts of the southern region of Sumatra and South Sulawesi.
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