Burning forests<\/p>\n
One might have thought that three years after the calamitous
\nforest and plantation fires that ravaged large tracts of
\nproductive forest and plantation lands in Sumatra and Kalimantan,
\nsome kind of effective mechanism could have been put in place to
\ncontrol what are, after all, predictable man-made disasters.<\/p>\n
No such luck. As of the middle of this week weather satellites
\nspotted some 1,200 fires burning once again on both those
\nislands. The fires, starting in the mainland Riau area, have
\nsince spread southward and are beginning to threaten the
\nneighboring provinces of Jambi and South Sumatra.<\/p>\n
So far, the authorities appear to have managed to bring the
\nsituation more or less under their control, in part because rains
\nhave helped put out some of the fires. But considering that these
\nareas of the Indonesian archipelago are on the threshold of the
\ndry season, which is expected to start in earnest next month, the
\npossibility of a worsening of the situation cannot be dismissed.<\/p>\n
In Pekanbaru, the provincial capital of the oil-rich province
\nof Riau, pollution readings have reached 200 or more --
\nunhealthy, in the common vernacular. The smoke has also reached
\nSingapore, where the authorities were reported yesterday to have
\nbegun distributing surgical masks, although pollution index
\nreadings are still relatively low. The United Nations Environment
\nProgram has expressed concern over the possibility of the fires
\nreaching the scale of the 1997-1998 disaster when the haze from
\nforest and plantation fires smothered not only large areas in
\nSumatra and Java and some other islands but also blanketed large
\nareas in other countries of Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
The help that is at present coming from other countries in
\nthis region in the form of trainers to train Indonesian fire
\nfighters helps and is of course welcome. But if the recurrence of
\nthe huge environmental disaster of three years ago is to be
\neffectively prevented, earnest measures will have to be taken at
\nhome.<\/p>\n
To precisely avert such a recurrence, the government has
\nwarned plantation owners to heed the law and threatens to punish
\nthose guilty of causing forest fires. But though the government
\ncertainly deserves to be commended for its rather swift reaction
\nto the danger, many observers doubt that this will be enough to
\nprevent a bigger conflagration. One major reason, as one
\ngovernment official in Sumatra admits, is that the sanctions
\nprescribed by the law have in the past proven to be ineffective
\nbecause the law punishes only those burning the forests, and not
\nplantations, where many of the forest fires start.<\/p>\n
There may be other reasons why the fight against forest fires
\nhas so far been mostly ineffective. On such reason which is
\nseldom reported but which many people suspect, is money taking by
\ncorrupt forestry inspectors or wardens whose duty it is to stop
\nand prevent the practice of land clearing by burning. For
\nunscrupulous companies bent only on making as much money as they
\ncan from their land concessions, it pays to pay off inspectors
\nand wardens because burning is a land clearing technique that is
\nboth effective and cheap.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, this country and others in the region
\ncontinue to be plagued every year by haze hazards that impair the
\nhealth of people and wrecks the tourist industry, while Indonesia
\ncontinues to lose large amounts of its already badly despoiled
\nforest resources every year.<\/p>\n
Now is the time, while a government committed to reform and
\nthe eradication of corruption is in power in Jakarta, for
\nIndonesia to take convincing measures and prepare adequate laws
\nto stop this depletion of the country's once-rich natural
\ntreasures. Even at the present level of destruction it will take
\nmany decades and possibly generations to regain what is already
\nlost through greed and neglect.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/burning-forests-1447899208",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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