Women Research Institute Blazes Path Towards Fire Safety in Riau Communities

Women are often more vulnerable to being affected by the adverse impacts of environmental disasters and damage. Indeed, this was the case was found by the Women Research Institute in relation to the forest fires haze in Riau in 2016. The research findings show that there are at least five main impacts of these environmental events, the impact on the environment, health, education, budget and economy. Not only that, in 2015, WRI also examined how the impact of forest concessions on the lives and livelihoods of women around the area.

Women Research Institute’s Participation at the Global Forest Watch Summit 2019 in Washington DC

The Global Forest Watch (GFW) held its inaugural Summit of practitioners and innovators in the field of forest monitoring from the 18^th to 19th June 2019 at the Marvin Center, George Washington University in Washington DC. The purpose of this summit was to strengthen the capacity of the forest monitoring community to implement a technology-based monitoring approach in the development of forest management, conservation and restoration.

Women Research Institute, a partner of the World Resources Institute, was invited to participate in the GFW Summit activities and exchange knowledge and experiences related to forest monitoring tools with other World Resources Institute partner institutions.

The GFW Summit 2019 activities included multiple panel discussions that participants could attend.  Women Research Institute researchers participated in various discussion sessions, topics included 1) The latest information about the development of the GFW platform, 2) Discussion on forest monitoring tools and practices 3) Discussion on Community Monitoring and Evaluation 4) Networking Session: user marketplace, 5) Utilizing data for real action.

Educational Media WRI: Graphic Video of the Impact of Haze due to Forest and Peatland Fires in Riau

Indonesia is one of the countries with the largest tropical peatland in the world with an area reaching 1.6 times the area of ​​Java. Peatlands are formed from the decay of organic material that has accumulated for thousands of years. Peatlands are also capable of storing 20 times more carbon than ordinary tropical rainforests.

Riau Province, is the number two province after Papua which has the largest peat area in Indonesia. 45.71% of Riau's total land area is Peatland. However, more than 50% of the peatland has been converted for aquaculture purposes and most of the land has been converted to land burning methods.

Educational Media WRI: Comics of the Impact of Haze due to Forest and Peatland Fires

In 2016, Women Research Institute conducted a study related to the impact of haze, especially for women in Pekanbaru. Based on the results of the study it was found that there was no clear policy and uncertainty over the government's response efforts to make the problem of haze increasingly protracted and caused huge losses.Therefore, in an effort to minimize the impact of haze due to forest and land fires, communities need to build a community resilience system to prevent forest fires byincreasing their role in monitoring changes in the surrounding forest conditions. With increased awareness, the public can contribute to making prevention efforts before the fires spread.