Banjarbaru, Oct. 12 -- Indonesia reaffirmed its plan to raise its number of forest rangers to 70,000 to strengthen forest monitoring and protection, Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said on Monday.

"As instructed by Mr. President, the number of our forest rangers will rise to 70,000. This certainly is good news for our efforts to safeguard forest areas from various threats," he said.

Speaking at a wildfire suppression operation in Liang Anggang Protected Forest in South Kalimantan, Antoni said Indonesia has only about 4,500 forest rangers despite forest cover spanning tens of millions of hectares.

He said more rangers are needed to strengthen patrols, prevent forest and land fires and curb illegal activities.

To fight fires in sever...