Community empowerment – based communication pattern to prevent forest and land fires

Department of Communication Science, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: tantri.yazid@lecturer.unri.ac.id

Abstract

The rise of devastating impacts of climate change has reached an urgent situation that we must act immediately to combat these problems. As the 13th sustainable development goal focused on climate actions. Bengkalis Regency as one of the highest potentials for land fire has become one of the biggest contributors to air pollution and land fire in Riau province, Indonesia. The role of Masyarakat Peduli Api (MPA) (Anti Fire Community) is to prevent those problems mainly focused on the society to combat the climate impact specifically air pollution and land fire in Bengkalis regency. The purpose of this research is to design a communication pattern for the prevention of forest and land fires based on community empowerment in Desa Wisata, Bukit Batu, Kab. Bengkalis. This study uses a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) by generating village mapping, season calendar, village tracing, Venn diagram, changes and trends analysis, and metrics ranking. The subject in this study were Anti Fire Community Bengkalis regency, visitors, and the public in general. The result showed that communication pattern is required to pursue effective collaboration between all parties to combat the impact of climate change. Moreover, the action that done by MPA has become one of preventive action to solve land fires.