Indonesia feels the heat<\/p>\n
Grahame Applegate, Center for International, Forestry Research (CIFOR),
\nBogor, West Java<\/p>\n
No sooner had the ink dried on the ASEAN Regional Haze
\nAgreement last June when meteorologists announced El Nino was
\nalready well under way. It seems Indonesia and its neighbors are
\nin for another six months of fires and smoke costing millions of
\ndollars in economic losses, health costs and environmental
\ndamage.<\/p>\n
While the approaching El Nino is not expected to spark
\nanything like the conflagration of 1997-1998, fires have already
\nstarted in Kalimantan and Sumatra. People in Pontianak are
\nbeginning to don face masks while in southern Thailand residents
\nare being advised on safety measures.<\/p>\n
We can expect any time now to hear calls for more fire
\nfighting helicopters, fire trucks and perhaps even cloud seeding.
\nThese are all examples of the \"suppression\" response to
\nIndonesia's fires -- dealing with fires by extinguishing them,
\nnot preventing them. And they are all examples of shortsighted
\npolicy.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's commitment under the ASEAN haze agreement to work
\nwith its neighbors in monitoring and combating fires is
\ncommendable. But industry, local communities, and governments in
\nIndonesia at all levels still need to do more to prevent fires
\nrather than simply extinguish them.<\/p>\n
This may be stating the obvious. But without an agreed-upon
\napproach by all players to solve the underlying causes of fires,
\ninternational relations will continue to be strained as smoke
\nchokes the region and Indonesia's development will continue to be
\nhampered by the enormous social and costs that fires inflict -- a
\ncost estimated by CIFOR to be around US$3 billion in 1997-98.<\/p>\n
The causes of fire are varied and the solutions are complex.
\nApart from the often legitimate but uncontrolled use of fire for
\nclearing land, fires also result from accidents and arson. Both
\nsmall farmers and large commodity producers use fire to clear
\nland for gardens and rice fields, or for oil palm, pulp wood and
\nrubber plantations.<\/p>\n
These fires generate much of the haze that covers the region
\nand are often the cause of accidental fires that seriously
\ncompound the problem.<\/p>\n
Farmers, hunters and beekeepers clear undergrowth with fire,
\nbut the fires often escape into forests. Loggers also start fires
\naccidentally, often through something as trivial as not properly
\nextinguishing a cooking fire. If this happens in peatlands, the
\nfires are almost impossible to put out.<\/p>\n
Underlying the causes of fires is a complex web of poverty,
\ndevelopment and good-governance issues. A significant governance
\nfactor and also a potential cause of conflict is the lack of a
\nfair system for allocating land resources between poor indigenous
\npeoples, migrants seeking a living and corporations expanding
\ntheir investments.<\/p>\n
Often the response to a perceived lack of equity is the use of
\narson to assert rights and drive competition away.<\/p>\n
One study in Lampung in southern Sumatra by CIFOR and the
\nInternational Center for Research in Agroforestry revealed 400
\nhectares of oil-palm and coconut plantation were burnt down by
\nthe local community who claimed traditional ownership of the
\nland.<\/p>\n
Poor communities often use arson to defend their perceived
\nrights to land that companies have acquired under Indonesian law.
\nIt is a clash between traditional law and the law of the state
\nthat could add to existing levels of communal tension.<\/p>\n
Dealing with such complex issues and accommodating all forest
\nstakeholders is one of the country's major challenges.<\/p>\n
Numerous useful policy recommendations have been made to
\nnational and regional governments. Common to these
\nrecommendations are the same two challenges that bedevil so much
\nof Indonesia's efforts to care for its people -- listening to all
\nstakeholders and implementing and impartially enforcing fair and
\nappropriate laws.<\/p>\n
Specific fire-related policy advice includes replacing the
\ncurrent impractical and unenforceable zero-burning policy with
\none that allows land clearing by judicious use of fire where
\nappropriate, but bans it during extremely dry years. It includes
\nimplementing better management of land clearing fires in peat
\nlands.<\/p>\n
It also includes developing transparent systems that reconcile
\ntraditional land claims and modern law and thus discourage people
\nfrom seeking their own searing brand of justice.<\/p>\n
And it includes spending money on fire prevention systems, and
\non land clearing machinery and training for farming communities
\n-- not wasting it on ineffectual fire-fighting equipment and
\nsuppression measures, such as the almost $1 million spent on
\ncloud seeding in 1997-1998.<\/p>\n
Prevention is indeed better than cure. Even the best-equipped
\nfire force in the world will still needs the next monsoon to put
\nout Indonesia's fires. Meanwhile the meteorological cauldron will
\nbe cooking up an even fierier El Nino to unleash on Southeast
\nAsia.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesia-feels-the-heat-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}