REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Some environmental organizations have urged President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to make "blusukan" or impromptu visits to peatland and forest fire locations in Riau province to gather firsthand information about the real problem.
"It is necessary for President Jokowi to make blusukan in Riau in order to find a way on how to overcome repeated peatland and forest fires in the province," Wilmar Witoelar, the founder of Perspektif Baru Foundation, stated here on Tuesday (28/10).
He remarked that the Indonesian Forum for Environment, Perspectif Baru Foundation, Greenpeace Indonesia, and Riau University's Disaster Study Center have called on President Jokowi to make blusukan to the forest fire locations in the province.
Wilmar noted that Jokowi's blusukan in Riau is deemed necessary due to the high incidents of peatland and forest fires in the province during the past 17 years without any fundamental solution being reached, despite the presidency changing hands several times.
"We are ready today to ask Jokowi to make blusukan in Riau in order to obtain firsthand information about the real on-field conditions," Wilmar affirmed.
In the meantime, Greenpeace Indonesia Chief Longgena Ginting remarked that Indonesia is the world's largest carbon emitter as a result of peatland and forest fires and is also considered to be a contributor to the problem of climate change.
"This ecological disaster has happened for 17 years without any real solution, and therefore, efforts to address the peatland and forest fires should be on top priority in the first 100 days of the Jokowi government," Ginting stated.
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