Examining the price of Indonesia's forest fires

Examining the price of Indonesia's forest fires

Indonesia's fire and haze: the cost of catastrophe;
Edited by David Glover and Timothy Jessup; Institute
of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1999; 149 pages

JAKARTA (JP): One does not need to be a prophet to express the
view that the Southeast Asian forest fires and smog -- there is a
difference -- of 1997-1998 constituted a very major environmental
disaster. Emil Salim, who contributed the foreword to this
volume, a former Indonesian environment minister, has no such
reputation but he is quick to acknowledge "the damage inflicted
was terrible" and on a scale that validates the most pessimistic
description.

It is undeniable that the fires of 1997-1998 and their
antecedents in 1982-1983 began in Indonesia, and yet when the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature issued a
report on the early 1980s describing the destruction in East
Kalimantan as "the worst single environmental catastrophe of the
century" the New Order provincial governor dismissed it all as no
big deal. Perhaps it was no wonder with that cynicism and
insouciance that the late 1990s were to confirm that no lessons
had been learned where they really mattered--in the corridors of
power.

However, if one opens this book expecting the contributors to
simply beat on the old regime, culpable though it was, with
political rods one will be disappointed. David Glover, a Canadian
forestry and agriculture expert, cautions against that and
insists "the danger that a forest will burn is dependent on the
levels of fire hazard and fire risk", and these involve a complex
interrelationship of natural and man-made factors. Fire hazard is
"a measure of the amount, type and dryness of potential fuel in
the forest" while "fire risk is usually related to human
activity".

Where the latter involves "burning in close proximity to a
place where the fire hazard is high" then major fires are
probable.

Indications from charcoal in the soils of Kalimantan show that
forests have burned periodically for at least 17,500 years. Why
then were these forests not eliminated? Because they are
generally remarkably resistant under normal circumstances.
However, the forests in 1997-1998 were far from normal with El
Nino reducing the rainfall to as little as 10 percent of normal
in some parts of the island. The critical difference was provided
by heavy fuel loads in logged forests and widespread use of fire
for land clearance.

Land use practices changed dramatically with the onset of the
New Order. And it was many of the interests connected to it that
played a principal part in that change. The swidden agriculture
of local peoples played a very minor role.

This volume to which a number of nationalities, Western and
Southeast Asian, have contributed examines in clear detail the
impact of the 1997-1998 blazes. These were felt as far away as
Vietnam, but of course the major impact was on the environment
and people of Indonesia.

Because it is partly technical, it is not simply a tale of
woe. However, one is left to wonder how much of this has
penetrated the corridors of power and affected the political
will. The ministries of forestry and environment should try to
create real mechanisms to prevent any repetition of these
disasters. And this book is a little help.

-- David Jardine