Blog: Press Releases To the tunes of the Dayak and Malay rhythms, latest radio jingle sets to remind Indonesian to avoid fires

Pontianak & Samarinda, 16 March 2021 – The latest radio jingle is out presenting the beauty of Dayak and Malay ethnic music in educating the community on the importance of land and forest fire prevention.

As an integral part of Indonesian cultural identity, ethnic music conveys aesthetic values and moral messages to the public at large. With this in mind, Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food released a jingle about land and forest fire prevention this year, marking its most recent effort on land and forest fire prevention.

The Company engaged with young Indonesian artists and local community representatives in creating the jingle.

“Tanah to indae kitae. Tanah adalah ibu kita, jangan bakar sembarangan! (The land is our mother, don’t carelessly let it burn)”. That was the message delivered by the Dayak representatives involved in the jingle making. The Dayak and Malay, as well as any other ethnic groups in Indonesia, believe that careless burning will do harm not only to themselves, but also to their family, other people and the environment.

Throughout March 2021, Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food has worked closely with the local government-owned as well as private radio stations in broadcasting the forest-and-land fire prevention jingle across West and East Kalimantan. These two provinces represent the most fire-prone areas where we operate and have become the focus of land-and-forest fire prevention initiatives that the Company has taken since 2016.

“We expect the combination of the call made in traditional language, accompanied by the music from the accordion and the Dayak traditional music instrument sapeh, can effectively hit home the message that we must take actions to mitigate land and forest fires this year,” said Pak Agus Purnomo, Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food’s Managing Director for Sustainability.

Educating the community and deterring them from using the irresponsible burning method for preparing land is a continuous process. Land burning has become quite a prevalent habit among some of the Indonesian communities, particularly in preparing farmland. Accordingly, changing this behaviour takes a considerable length of time. The land-and-forest fire prevention jingle can be downloaded for free from the Company’s land-and-forest fire prevention page at https://www.smart-tbk.com/jingle-pencegahan-karhutla/

This effort constitutes the Company’s latest initiative in educating the community on land and forest fire prevention and gradually transforming the community’s behaviour in this respect.

In another effort aimed at community education, the Company worked together with other partners including the Peat Restoration Agency (Badan Restorasi Gambut/BRG) in West Kalimantan in 2020. In collaboration with BRG, the Company rolled out “We Preserve Peats (Kami Memelihara Gambut/KAMEG)” campaign through Peat Da’I training. Additionally, under the Desa Makmur Peduli Api (DMPA) Programme, the Company supports local communities by providing training and assistance in sustainable farming without the burning method.

Last year, teachers in West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan received online educational training on land and forest fire prevention. Over 150 teachers joined such activity. The Company also provides its support by providing educational material on land and forest fire prevention, i.e. the storybook Rumbun and Jungle Friends, of which over 5.800 copies have been distributed to schools in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua.

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