The Forestry Office of Central Kalimantan in collaboration with GGGI held a Forestry Technical Coordination Meeting of Central Kalimantan themed “Optimizing the Role of FMUs in Forest Resources Utilization and Forest Fire Control in Central Kalimantan” on August 12-13, 2020.

Taking place both online and offline, the meeting was attended by Bappeda and the Offices who are the beneficiaries of Profit Sharing Fund-Reforestation Fund (DBH-DR) from all districts/cities in Central Kalimantan, Technical Implementation Unit of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) in Central Kalimantan, as well as the Technical Implementation Unit of Production Forest Management Unit and Sustainable Forest Management Unit of Central Kalimantan.

The Secretary of Central Kalimantan, Fahrizal Fitri, in his opening remarks expressed his hope that the Forest Management Unit (FMUs) would be at the forefront of area protection, spearheading the forest and land fires control, creating a prosper community, increasing regional revenue and preserving the region. He also added that peatlands in Central Kalimantan need to be a common concern so that haze issue does not happen again in 2020.

On the second day, Ruandha Agung Sugardiman, Director General of Climate Change of MoEF delivered three policies to control forest and land fires, which are prevention, countermeasures and post-fire handling. Furthermore, Central Kalimantan must increase awareness and efforts to control forest and land fires so that the number of hotspots can be reduced at the district and provincial levels. According to the satellite data, forest and land fires occurred in August and would reach their peak in September. Through the Climate Change and Forest and Land Fires Control Office, MoEF has built 22 village posts that cover 66 villages in Central Kalimantan.

Forest and land fires are still an important issue because Central Kalimantan is one of the areas prone to it. From the discussion, it was agreed that forest and land fires must be handled with a landscape approach along with outreach from the local government to the community to increase their involvement in forest and land fire control, with FMUs as the frontliner at the grass-root level.

The Minister of Finance Regulation No. 221 PMK.07/2019 about the Utilization, Monitoring and Evaluation of Forest Resources Profit Sharing Fund Reforestation Fund was also socialized during the meeting. Currently, MoEF is initiating a mandate to expand DBH-DR so these funds can be used for national economic recovery post Covid-19 pandemic.