SIG Provides Local Fire Management Training

Brett Shields and Dr Chris Mallek conducted a 5 day fire training course on behalf of the US Forest Service and Burung Indonesia at the Harapan Rainforest site in Jambi, Sumatra (Indonesia). Brett is SIG’s Director for Asia Pacific and Chris is a SIG affiliate with our Natural Hazards team.

Harapan Rainforest is a 100,000ha conservation reserve that is prone to land encroachment and fires associated from the encroachment. Burung Indonesia is a conservation group managing the site (as part of the Indonesian Government Ecosystem Conservation Reserve, ERC, system) and six other ERC site staff participated in the training to make the group more than 20 people strong from across Indonesia including staff from Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. The training occurred during the fire season and so real fires were happening at the time, which were incorporated into the live fire practice and exercises. The course also had involvement from training staff from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Pak Ronni Wibowo, and two trainers from the local Manggala Agni (Government fire fighting teams).