Drought may drag on, forest fires may worsen

JAKARTA (JP): The drought may continue well into June in East Kalimantan, where new fires in January have ravaged tens of thousands of hectares of forest, an official has said.

Deputy Chairman of the National Disaster Management Coordinating Board, Maj. Gen. Adang Ruchiatna, said Saturday that despite several weeks of rains recently, this year's forest fires could be worse than last year's unless they were immediately addressed.

"The rainy season predicted for January did not happen. Tens of thousands hectares of forest have even been razed," said Adang, reported Antara in the province's capital of Samarinda.

Adang said the bleak climate forecast in the province was based on studies conducted by the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency here and the United States.

"Therefore, we need to anticipate it early," warned Adang.

This year's environmental problems would be exacerbated by the country's economic woes, he said.

Last year, a huge pall of smoke from the forest fires, mostly from the Kalimantan and Sumatra islands, drifted across Southeast Asia for months, causing health problems in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. The smog also reached parts of Thailand and the Philippines.

Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo said recently that 265,000 hectares of the country's forests were burned during the fires in the long dry season in 1997, causing estimated losses of Rp 260 billion (US$26,000).

The fires, many of them deliberately lit to clear land for agricultural purposes, were blamed on a prolonged dry season caused by the El Nino weather effect originating in the Pacific Ocean.

Adang blamed "a lack of coordination between local government agencies" for the province's tardiness in coping with the recent forest fires.

Adang met with East Kalimantan Governor H.M. Ardans, chairman of the provincial natural disaster coordinating board Suwarna Abdul Fatah, and East Kalimantan military chief Col. Djali Yusuf during his inspection in the province.

He was accompanied by the Environmental Impact Management Agency's director of environmental damage control Yon Artiono Arba'i, to collect ground evidence to confirm allegations that the recent forest fires were manmade.

Adang said satellite images released by the German-sponsored cooperating body Integrated Forest Fires Management, based in Balikpapan, show that the fires were burning forest concessions belonging to 10 companies.

They are PT Inhutani I, PT Oceanic Timber Product, PT Sumber Mas IV, PT Sumber Mas Timber II, PT Persada Bumi Hijau, PT Porodisa Trading Indonesia, PT ITCI, and PT GPI/ Kiani Kertas. All are located in Kutai.

In Berau, the areas ravaged belong to PT Gunung Utama Timber, while in Bulungan, they belong to PT Indah Meranti Permata Timor Coy and to PT Inhutani I. (42/aan)