number of villages who have adopted this program has increased from 16 villages in
2016 to 24 villages in 2019 (see Table 13.6). In 2015, KMP actually had worked
with a few villages in relation to the forest fire, but the activity mainly focused on fire
suppression with the local communities functioned as daily labor.
The ultimate objective of the fire prevention program is to reduce the occurrence
of peatland wildfires in the project zone and project area. Nevertheless, it seems that
the number of hotspot occurrences was not parallel with the increasing involvement
of villagers in the forest fire prevention program. The number of hotspots within the
project zone increased dramatically in 2019 as showed in Table 13.6. In another
interesting finding from our household survey in August 2019, the respondents in
total 255 out of 600 respondents (all respondents are the villagers who live in the
KMP-PZ area) still believe that using fire is the most effective, cheapest, and faster
tool to clear the land (internal data of PT RMU, unpublished). Interestingly,
545 respondents have been aware about the banning of fire for land clearing.
It could be inferred that up to this point, the fire prevention programs only add to
the conceptual knowledge of the local communities, but unfortunately, have not
been effective at the practical level. Thus, this might demonstrate that this program
has not yet answered the root of the problem in relation to the utilization of fires in
peatlands. We might speculate that the main cause of wildfires is the combination of
social, economic, land cover changes, and climatic factors, but the correlation among
those factors is still obscure. Given this complicated situation, the occurrence of
wildfire is still not well predicted in the future. However, we intend to think that the
effective fire prevention program should be a combination of several components
such as developing alternative livelihoods; improving land productivity mainly in
the undeveloped peatlands or grasslands; improving a land allocation system; and
also enforcing the law. Alternatively, a perspective that fire is one of the land and
forest management tools, either for the forest restoration or land cultivation, should
Table 13.6 Number of community member involvement in the fire prevention activities in KMP.
Hotspot data derived from MODIS and VIIRS Land Products Global Subsetting and Visualization
Tool (ORNL DAAC 2018). The numbers in brackets show hotspot data with a confidence interval
more than 80%
Activity
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Number of RSA (Regu Siaga Api, village-based fire
prevention team) team
8
16
17
21
24
Number of information dissemination on fire prevention
and forest fire
0
15
36
36
20
Number of villagers who attended the forest fire information dissemination
na
897
1506 448
580
Number of villagers who involved in the fire prevention
and fire suppression within the project zone area
129
456
536
594
978
Number of hotspots in the project zone
1493
(453)
11
(1)
2 (0) 138
(67)
1844
(869)
a
Number of hotspots in the project area
303
(117)
4 (0) 0 (0) 14
(7)
78
(43)
a
a hotspot data only until September 2019
13 Management Practice and Restoration of the Peat Swamp Forest in. . .
405
2016 to 24 villages in 2019 (see Table 13.6). In 2015, KMP actually had worked
with a few villages in relation to the forest fire, but the activity mainly focused on fire
suppression with the local communities functioned as daily labor.
The ultimate objective of the fire prevention program is to reduce the occurrence
of peatland wildfires in the project zone and project area. Nevertheless, it seems that
the number of hotspot occurrences was not parallel with the increasing involvement
of villagers in the forest fire prevention program. The number of hotspots within the
project zone increased dramatically in 2019 as showed in Table 13.6. In another
interesting finding from our household survey in August 2019, the respondents in
total 255 out of 600 respondents (all respondents are the villagers who live in the
KMP-PZ area) still believe that using fire is the most effective, cheapest, and faster
tool to clear the land (internal data of PT RMU, unpublished). Interestingly,
545 respondents have been aware about the banning of fire for land clearing.
It could be inferred that up to this point, the fire prevention programs only add to
the conceptual knowledge of the local communities, but unfortunately, have not
been effective at the practical level. Thus, this might demonstrate that this program
has not yet answered the root of the problem in relation to the utilization of fires in
peatlands. We might speculate that the main cause of wildfires is the combination of
social, economic, land cover changes, and climatic factors, but the correlation among
those factors is still obscure. Given this complicated situation, the occurrence of
wildfire is still not well predicted in the future. However, we intend to think that the
effective fire prevention program should be a combination of several components
such as developing alternative livelihoods; improving land productivity mainly in
the undeveloped peatlands or grasslands; improving a land allocation system; and
also enforcing the law. Alternatively, a perspective that fire is one of the land and
forest management tools, either for the forest restoration or land cultivation, should
Table 13.6 Number of community member involvement in the fire prevention activities in KMP.
Hotspot data derived from MODIS and VIIRS Land Products Global Subsetting and Visualization
Tool (ORNL DAAC 2018). The numbers in brackets show hotspot data with a confidence interval
more than 80%
Activity
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Number of RSA (Regu Siaga Api, village-based fire
prevention team) team
8
16
17
21
24
Number of information dissemination on fire prevention
and forest fire
0
15
36
36
20
Number of villagers who attended the forest fire information dissemination
na
897
1506 448
580
Number of villagers who involved in the fire prevention
and fire suppression within the project zone area
129
456
536
594
978
Number of hotspots in the project zone
1493
(453)
11
(1)
2 (0) 138
(67)
1844
(869)
a
Number of hotspots in the project area
303
(117)
4 (0) 0 (0) 14
(7)
78
(43)
a
a hotspot data only until September 2019
13 Management Practice and Restoration of the Peat Swamp Forest in. . .
405