$4.4b up in smoke due to 'poor govt policy'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Two international environmental organizations
\ncharged yesterday that poorly designed government policy helped
\nescalate last year's calamitous forest fires in Sumatra and
\nKalimantan which, according to fresh estimates, caused US$4.4 in
\ndamages.<\/p>\n
A report released by the Singapore-based Economy and
\nEnvironment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) and World Wide
\nFund for Nature (WWF) said the estimate was \"conservative\" since
\nit excluded immeasurable factors such as the long-term impact on
\nhealth and biodiversity loss.<\/p>\n
\"The tragedy is that these fires were largely preventable,\"
\nWWF forest conservation advisor Togu Manurung said in a statement
\nreceived here yesterday.<\/p>\n
\"Tropical rain forests don't burn easily, even under drought
\nconditions. Indonesian forests have been degraded by years of
\npoor forestry practices, that's why they are so susceptible to
\nfires set by people.\"<\/p>\n
Timothy Jessup, WWF's senior policy advisor in Jakarta,
\npointed to a series of poorly designed policies which actually
\nhelped fan the fires.<\/p>\n
These include a program to drain and convert one million
\nhectares of peat forest for rice cultivation. Fires in these
\nformer wetlands have been the most difficult to extinguish and
\ncreated haze laden with sulfuric acid.<\/p>\n
Unclear land ownership laws encouraged people and companies to
\nclear land as a way of staking a claim and they used fire for the
\ntask.<\/p>\n
He also noted that policies which kept the prices of wood
\nsupplied to processing mills low, provided little incentive to
\nprotect standing timber or to sell scrap wood rather than burn
\nit.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, it was noted that short-term leases of forest
\nland to timber companies also left little incentive for
\nsustainable management.<\/p>\n
\"Changing these policies should be front and center in the new
\ngovernment's reform program,\" Jessup said.<\/p>\n
The EEPSEA\/WWF report put fire-related losses at $3 billion,
\nwhile the haze-related impact was estimated at over $1.4 billion.<\/p>\n
\"This is more than the damages assessed for the Exxon Valdez
\noil spill and India's Bhopal chemical spill combined,\" EEPSEA
\ndirector David Glover said referring to two past major
\nenvironmental disasters.<\/p>\n
\"The resources lost would have been more than enough to
\nprovide basic sanitation, water sewage services for Indonesia's
\n120 million rural poor.\"<\/p>\n
The principal fire-related damages include $493 million in
\ntimber losses, $470 million in foregone agricultural production,
\n$1.8 billion in ecological services provided to the people by
\nforests such as water supply, food and medicine, and another $272
\nmillion for the contribution to global warming from the release
\nof carbon.<\/p>\n
\"While global warming will be felt by the rest of the world,
\nthe other fire damages were suffered mainly by Indonesia itself,\"
\nthe EPSEA\/WWF statement said.<\/p>\n
More than five million hectares of forest, plantation, and
\nland in Indonesia were razed by the fires last year. Over 70
\nmillion people throughout the Southeast Asia region were affected
\nby the resulting haze.<\/p>\n
The method used to calculate the damages was derived from
\nsatellite mapping studies of razed forests in Sumatra and
\nKalimantan by the National University of Singapore's Center for
\nRemote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP), with adjustments
\nby EEPSEA and WWF for areas burned outside the provinces.<\/p>\n
These were then calculated with per hectare values for various
\nvegetation types and land uses. (aan)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/44b-up-in-smoke-due-to-poor-govt-policy-1447893297",
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