Blog: Press Releases Fire prevention education takes a musical turn, with a new radio jingle aimed at reminding Indonesians to avoid fires

Jakarta, 18 March 2021 – A new radio jingle featuring the beautiful music of Indonesia’s ethnic Dayak and Malay people is educating these communities about the importance of preventing forest and land fires.

An inseparable part of Indonesian cultural identity, ethnic music provides aesthetic values and moral messages to the community. That is what prompted Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food to launch the Karhutla Prevention Jingle this year, as the company’s latest effort to educate the public on preventing forest and land fires.

The company engaged young Indonesian artists and representatives of the local community to make the Karhutla Prevention Jingle.

 “Tanah to indae kitae. The land is our mother, don’t burn it carelessly!” is a sentence conveyed by representatives of the Dayak community involved in making the jingle. The Dayak and Malay communities and other tribes in Indonesia view that burning arbitrarily will cause harm not only to themselves, but also to other people, the environment, and their families.

Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food is working with local government and private radio stations to air the jingle in three provinces: Riau, West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan, throughout the month of March.

These three provinces represent the most fire-prone areas where the company operates and have been the focus of a series of initiatives since 2016 – all of which form the Desa Makmur Peduli Api programme.

“We hope the combination of local languages with music from the accordion and the traditional Dayak instrument, the sapeh, will drive home the message that we must all act to reduce forest and land fires this year,” said Agus Purnomo, Managing Director of Sustainability, Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food.

Educating people not to burn land carelessly is a long process. Burning land has become the culture of some Indonesians, especially in preparing agricultural land. It takes a long time to change that pattern of behaviour.

The Karhutla Prevention Jingle can be downloaded for free on the company’s forest and land fire prevention page at https://www.smart-tbk.com/en/video-jingle-pencegahan-karhutla/

It is the latest in the company’s efforts to educate communities about the risk of forest and land fires and to change behaviours in these fire-prone communities.

Last year the company launched the Rumbun and Sahabat Rimba storybook for elementary school students and teaching teachers. A total of 5,800 storybooks were distributed to schools located in areas prone to forest and land fires. Online teacher training activities, mentoring farmers in fire-prone villages, and Fire Alert Community (MSA) training are other efforts by the company to promote a forest and land fire-free Indonesia.

Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food’s efforts are paying off. In 2020 97 percent of the villages supported by the Desa Makmur Peduli Apil programmes were fire-free.

Mr Purnomo said: “Of course, fire prevent requires the cooperation of all – companies, communities and the government. Together we can achieve a forest and land fire free Indonesia.”

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About Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food
In Indonesia, all Golden Agri-Resources’ (GAR’s) palm oil related businesses operate under the Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food brand. Outside of Indonesia, the majority of GAR-owned entities operate under the GAR brand. When talking about GAR’s total business interests in Indonesia, Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food is used.

Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food operates with a total planting area in Indonesia reaching more than 495,247 hectares (including plasma smallholders) as at 30 September 2019, located in Indonesia. It has integrated operations focused on the production of palm-based edible oil and fat. Focus on sustainable palm oil production, its primary activities in Indonesia include cultivating and harvesting of oil palm trees; processing of fresh fruit bunch into crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel; refining CPO into value-added products such as cooking oil, margarine, shortening, biodiesel and oleo-chemicals; as well as merchandising palm products throughout the world. It also has operations in China and India including a deep-sea port, oilseeds crushing plant, production capabilities for refined edible oil products as well as other food products such as noodles.

Founded in 1996, GAR was listed on the Singapore Exchange in 1999 and has a market capitalisation of US$2.1 billion as at 30 September 2019. Flambo International Limited, an investment company, is currently GAR’s largest shareholder, with a 50.35 percent stake. GAR has several subsidiaries, including PT SMART Tbk which was listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 1992.

For more information, please contact:

Beni Wijaya
Corporate Communications Executive
[email protected]