With the help of NGOs, governmental agencies and the local populations of villages in the Kerinci area, APRIL Group – the largest producer of pulp and paper in Indonesia – set out to create fire-free villages in an initiative to prevent forest fires in the area and train local villagers to use responsible means of fire prevention.
Multi-Stakeholder Fire Prevention Project
The project set forth by APRIL Group aims to prevent uncontrolled fires and stop them before they even happen. It has been praised by many non-governmental entities, some of which have been against APRIL's initiatives in the past.
This new sustainable approach by the RGE giant has become a multi-stakeholder fire prevention program that links the government, the community and the private sector in the same common goals associated with creating community incentives to appoint fire crew leaders, establish more sustainable agricultural practices, improve air monitoring and launch a full-scale community awareness campaign geared toward communicating information about fires that could potentially grow out of control.
The Importance of a Strong Partnership
APRIL has mobilized nine villages in the area to take part in the program, and the numbers that the company has invested are quite impressive – more than $6 million spent on fire prevention equipment and about $3-4 million in fire suppression expenses.
The local government and law enforcement, as well as the military and several organizations, such as the Provincial Disaster Mitigation Agency, have shown their support as well, and the villagers are being trained by APRIL Group experts in good management practices and using land clearing equipment more responsibly.
NGOs such as Blue Green and Rumah Pohon have also showed great interest in the project and have already started in helping to identify several reliable alternatives to fire clearing, to help support land management without the needless and dangerous burning practices that have been utilized in the past.
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