Minister of Forestry praises the national police for the firm handling of forest and forestry matters: effectively creates a deterrent effect

Jakarta – The Minister of Forestry (Menhut), Raja Juli Antoni, appreciated the law enforcement carried out by the National Police in dealing with cases of forest and land fires (karhutla). Raja Juli assessed that this firm attitude contributed to reducing the number of forest and land fires in Indonesia. Raja Juli conveyed this after meeting with the national police chief, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, at the main building of the national police headquarters, South Jakarta, on Friday (24/10/2025). He also expressed his gratitude because of the good cooperation with the National Police, cases of forest fires in the country could be suppressed. “In several places, the deterrent effect due to fairly good and effective law enforcement from the police has led to the number of naughty people playing around by burning land to make it easier to garden, the numbers could be reduced for example,” said Raja Juli. Scroll to continue content “So we would like to once again express our deepest gratitude to all levels of the Indonesian National Police,” he continued. Raja Juli explained that there was a significant decrease in forest and land fire incidents throughout 2025 from the previous year. The decline rate was nearly 50 percent. “Our number of forest and land fires has decreased from 376,000 hectares in 2024 this year to 213,000 hectares in 2025,” he explained. At the same event, General Sigit said that since 2024, he had arrested about 130 suspects related to forest fire cases in a number of areas. “In 2025, more or less large areas of land were burned, of which we then arrested 83 suspects because they were found to have started fires intentionally. Meanwhile, in 2024, General said suspects,” said General Sigit. He acknowledged that there has been an increase in law enforcement numbers. That way, continued Sigit, the spread of burnt soil can be reduced. “Of course, in the future we will continue to make improvements together with the Ministry of Forestry and perhaps later also all related stakeholders so that we can reduce forest fires in 2026-2027 so that the area of ​​burnt land can also be reduced,” he concluded. (evil/yang)