Concessionaires warned against forest fires<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Forestry warned forest
\nconcessionaires yesterday to avoid using fire to clear land
\nduring the dry season which will last until October.<\/p>\n
\"Forest fires in Indonesia have been mainly caused by forest
\nclearances and sloppiness. Fire is used to keep expenditure
\ndown,\" said the director general of forest protection and nature
\nconservation, R. Sumarsono.<\/p>\n
\"We also urge concessionaires to provide a special budget for
\nforest fire prevention and for the procurement of fire fighting
\nequipment, and to follow the government-set technical procedures
\nin forestry clearance,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, the ministry would not provide any administration
\nassistance for violating concessionaires, he said.<\/p>\n
\"They (concessionaires) need to educate their personnel and
\nlocal communities about forest fire prevention and provide field
\nemergency stations,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has 120 million hectares of forest. Last year 10,356
\nhectares of forest, including 5,519 hectares in Java, were
\ndestroyed by fire.<\/p>\n
He said most forest fires in Java were caused by negligence,
\nlike throwing smoldering cigarette butts onto dry wood.<\/p>\n
In January forest fires razed 10 hectares of tourism forest in
\nEast Kalimantan, 56 hectares of production forest in Central
\nSulawesi.<\/p>\n
In February fires destroyed 24 hectares of production forest
\nin South Kalimantan.<\/p>\n
The Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics expects this dry
\nseason to be normal and to reach its peak in August and
\nSeptember.<\/p>\n
The most susceptible areas are in South Sumatra, Lampung,
\nJambi, Riau, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
Sumarsono asked local communities and administrations to take
\npart in preventing forest fires.<\/p>\n
The ministry would help by providing in-house training for
\nforestry security guards and a national awareness campaign, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The ministry will also use remote sensing with Synthetic
\nAperture Radar (SAR) and Interferrometric SAR to supervise
\nforests and monitor areas in critical states.<\/p>\n
The radar technology can see through clouds and darkness to
\ncreate detailed images of the earth, ecology and concessionaires'
\nactivities, as well as detect heat and potential bush fire spots.<\/p>\n
Sumarsono said the use of the radar was important to map
\nforestry areas in East and Central Kalimantan which were
\npermanently covered by cloud.<\/p>\n
The director general of forest inventory and land use
\nplanning, Sumahadi, said the government had mapped about 30
\nmillion hectares of forestry areas since March 1996. (10)<\/p>",
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