The MPA’s Leadership Style in Community-Based Forest and Land Fire Management

Abstract

Community involvement in forest and land fires management at site level is important due to the community can play a central role in preventing forest and land fires. One of the programs that involves the community in controlling forest and land fires is the Fire Care Community or Masyarakat Peduli Api (MPA). The MPA institution is a group consisting of members who join voluntarily. As a organization, MPA requires leadership that is able to mobilize members to carry out their role. MPA Wonorejo in Musi Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatra Province, is one of the successful MPAs. In this case the leader of MPA Wonorejo received the Wana Lestari award from the Minister of Environment and Forestry in 2018. With the case study method, this research was conducted to explore the leadership style that has been applied to the Wonorejo MPA. The results showed that MPA Wonorejo's leadership style is a transformational style with charismatic characters, inspires members, encourages intellectuality and provides individual attention. The leader of MPA has an important role in mobilizing MPA members to play a role in fire control.

Can Transformational Leadership Enhancing Performance Effectively in Forest Fires Disaster Management?

“…Bligh, the Premier of Queensland Australia, provoked her followers to perform beyond their ordinary when the flood occurred in 2011 [10]. A leader of the social community in Wonorejo Musi Banyuasin South Sumatera Indonesia succeed in mobilizing the members to play a role in fire control because the leader's leadership assigned a transformational style with charismatic characters, inspires members, encourages intellectuality, and provides individual attention [11]. A hospital leader in Qingchuan Wenchuan China, Mr. Hu, motivated his subordinates to help and rescue more than 3.000 people in 20 days after the earthquake through his self-sacrificial behavior [12].…”