FIRE FOREST

Clean air plays an important role in organism life. It provides oxygen (O2) which is vital not only for human beings but also for an entire web of life. Currently, there are a lot of problems concerning the air’s quality. One of the worst and most prolong air pollution is haze in Riau province which is caused by fire forests.

A large number of Indonesia’s forest ecosystems in the soggy areas go through damage, decrease in humidity and, canopy opening. As the consequence, the peat forest environment that should be wet and moist turns to be drier and inflammable. Meanwhile, a researcher from Research Center for Society and Culture LIPI, Herman Hidayat said that 70% of peat forest blaze has 3 meters of depth below the ground surface, causing fire forest and smog difficult to be extinguished. 

Fire forest occurs due to the process of expanding cultivated areas by burning the forests. This is done by those irresponsible people who are merely requiring big earnings without considering the impacts. Researcher about "Political Economy of Fire Forest" from Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Heri, discovered that to clear out the land by smoldering it only costs around 10-20 dollars per hectare, enormously cut-rated comparing through the mechanical cleaning which possibly will rate approximately 200 dollars for each hectare. Therefore people prefer to use this way to enlarge the farming area. 

Peat forest burning issues cannot be separated from water concerns. To conquer fire forest, it must initially be dealing with the case to resolve water transport initially, since 90 to 95 percent of peat forests are water constructed. Reliable control and plan are needed to keep it moist and non-flammable. Protection can be done by preventing the water from flowing into the canal directly. A Distribution line should be designed to trap the drift. Building a bulkhead will also cut off the flow in the channel, so it does not run rapidly into larger water bodies. This indicates that the bulkhead preserves peat forest remains wet, humid and avoids fire forest effectively.