East Kalimantan forest fires RI's fifth priority

JAKARTA (JP): Despite the magnitude of losses incurred, raging forest fires in East Kalimantan rank fifth in the government's crisis handling agenda, according to State Minister of Environment Juwono Sudarsono.

Juwono told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview yesterday that in terms of priority, the disaster came after the poverty alleviation program, employment generation, public health care and the program to stabilize the rupiah.

"These multiple crises have made it difficult (for my office) to introduce a sense of urgency," Juwono said, referring to the environmental catastrophe which, according to him, had been considered a national disaster since last September.

He said the government had, however, exerted a maximum effort to deal with the fires.

In a meeting last Friday, related government offices decided to improve and better coordinate the campaign to put out forest fires. The Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Office, which is also in charge of the National Disaster Management Coordination Board (Bakornas PB), will be the coordinator.

International assistance will from now on be handled by Bakornas PB, which will channel it to the affected areas.

The ministries of home affairs and forestry will coordinate fieldwork against the fires, as the two offices control the bureaucracy and the forestry policies, Juwono said.

The minister, however, took note of the "volunteers, forest rangers, police and soldiers" who had been fighting the fires all this time with limited means and facilities, lauding them as "the true heroes".

"The magnitude of the fires has been tremendous. Our men have done all that humans can possibly do, and are still trying... but in some cases the fires are simply out of control," said Juwono, who was a professor of international politics at the University of Indonesia.

Coal seams -- some of which had been smoldering for 10 years, now left exposed after the canopy of trees have gone -- and burning peat areas were among the uncontrollables, he said.

"Let alone the El Nino weather phenomenon (which is still lingering) and the human follies that caused the fires," he said.

Asked whether the disaster was of a scale large enough to be declared a national disaster, Juwono said: "Forest fires have been declared a national disaster since last September, and the status still stands."

Juwono said the forest fires could increase in priority only if the resulting smog reached Jakarta, which was possible given the changing wind patterns and the possibility of the fires continuing until September.

Another factor that could nudge the fires to top priority was if the haze caused an even greater international problem, he said.

Neighboring Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and even Thailand have been affected by smog from Indonesian forest fires.

Juwono said only heavy rainfall could effectively put out the fires now. Even though rain had started to fall in some areas in East Kalimantan, it was still uncertain when the protracted rains would come.

"If the fires are still burning in September, the haze would affect neighboring Malaysia, which will be by then hosting the (Commonwealth) sports games," Juwono said, giving an example of further international crisis caused by the fires.

Last year, Indonesia lost US$1.4 billion to similar disasters in Sumatra and Kalimantan where over one million hectares of forest and brushland were ravaged. Twenty million Indonesians in the provinces were affected by haze-related health problems.

Antara reported that by yesterday, 393,850 hectares of forest had been destroyed in the fires over the past three months, causing a loss of Rp 7.32 trillion (US$915 million) in lost timber revenue. (aan)