Djamaludin reports damage of forest fires to Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo once again claimed full responsibility for the forest fires raging in Sumatra and Kalimantan yesterday as he reported to President Soeharto on the extent of the damage.

Some 96,000 hectares of forest areas have been destroyed, consisting of 70,000 hectares of productive forests -- including some 15,000 on timber estates -- and 26,000 hectares of protected and conservation forests, Djamaludin said.

In financial terms, the losses on timber estates amounted to Rp 45 billion (US$11.8 million dollars) given an average value of Rp 3 million per hectare, he said.

These losses would be fully borne by the timber companies, he told reporters after the meeting at Merdeka Palace.

Earlier, during a joint media briefing with other ministers at the Ministry of Information, Djamaludin said the losses caused by fires in protected forests were difficult to ascertain.

They represented "intangible losses", he said.

"These are God-given. You cannot replace or replant them," he said, adding that besides losing the forests, Indonesia lost valuable biodiversity resources, and the fires also disrupted the lives of wildlife such as tigers and elephants.

Djamaludin said his ministry had taken the necessary steps to prevent forest fires, learning from the 1994 experience when more than 160,000 hectares of forestry areas were razed.

They included training forest rangers, instructors and would- be instructors, and the establishment of 560 fire-fighting units in forestry companies, he said.

The ministry also banned the practice of using fires in land clearing activities, and has revoked some 154 wood-use permits held by various companies for violating the ban, he said.

As of the beginning of October, most of the forest fires had been brought under control, he said.

There were still few minor fires in coastal areas or in areas close to riverbanks, mostly started by small farmers, he said.

"The local administrations and the big companies should lend them assistance in fighting the fires. Don't blame the small farmers because they don't have the means," he said.

Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah, in the joint briefing at the Ministry of Information, said fires had razed 121,630 hectares in plantation areas, consisting of 31,500 hectares of newly cleared land, and 88,700 hectares in areas already planted with trees.

Some of the plantation areas had trees two or three years old, and some "nucleus" plantation areas -- which would have provided seeds to smallholders -- had also been razed, he said.

Sjarifudin said all but 10 of the 242 plantation companies where fires were detected by satellite images last month had reported back to say that they had the situation under control.

These companies, he said, had the equipment and manpower to combat the fires. The government had now asked them to help fighting the blaze outside their areas, he added.

The government had summoned 29 plantation companies for allegedly starting fires deliberately when clearing land in spite of a ban imposed since the beginning of the year, he said.

"These investigations will continue," he added.

Sjarifudin said there were problems in containing fires started by small farmers because they occurred in sparsely populated areas.

Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo told the joint media briefing that none of the fires had occurred in new settlement areas because the ban against using fires in clearing land had been duly observed.

There were fires in old settlement areas, and these were deliberately started by farmers as they cleared their second allotted plot for a new plantation, Siswono said.

Some of these fires were devastating, he said. In North Sumatra, a fire razed 88 houses and 550 hectares of farmland, and in South Kalimantan it razed 268 houses and 600 hectares of farmland.

President Soeharto has agreed to replace their razed property, the minister said.

"This is a very valuable and expensive lesson," Siswono said.

The method of setting fires to clear land had been used for 20 years, but its impact had never been this devastating, he said.

"Conditions have changed. We should refrain from using fires to clear up tracts of land," he said. (emb)