Forest fire losses may exceed Rp 100b
JAKARTA (JP): The fires that have ravaged more than 20,000 hectares of brush and forest in East Kalimantan over the last two months have incurred Rp 76.2 billion in losses for Indonesia.
According to the latest data, areas belonging to timber estates accounted for Rp 65.4 billion of the total losses, forest concessions for Rp 8.5 billion, and plantations for Rp 2.1 billion, Antara reported yesterday.
Quoting head of the provincial environmental impact management agency, Awang Farouk Ishak, the news agency predicted that the losses this year would be higher than last year, when fires ravaged 30,000 hectares of forest between April and December. The 1997 fires caused losses of up to Rp 100 billion.
He said 18,035 hectares out of the total 20,158 hectares damaged by this year's fires were forest areas located in the Kutai National Park and Bontang Reserve Forest. The remaining 2,123 hectares were brush areas.
Awang predicted the fires would get worse and that the induced impact would also be worse than the one suffered by the country last year which, according to a bona fide study, caused more than US$1 million in damage through haze alone.
The local branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature has said that the high cost of haze-inflicted damage could have been used "to provide basic sanitation, water and sewage services for 40 million people, or about one third of the country's poor."
According to Awang, the losses to be suffered by the country during this year's forest and brush fires in East Kalimantan -- aggravated by the prolonged dry season and economic crisis -- were still being calculated.
Continued burning by companies and slash-and-burn farmers to clear land following seasonal harvests have heightened fears of the haze, which covered the country and neighboring Malaysia and Singapore throughout much of last year, returning.
In line with the deepening environmental crisis, Awang said yesterday that the provincial government has vowed to take stringent legal action against forest burners.
Out of 20 companies accused of starting fires to clear land, one known as PT Matras Sawit has been singled out for arson and a dossier against the company has been submitted to police for further investigation, he said.
In Jakarta yesterday, Hadi S. Alikodra, a senior official at the office of the state minister of environment, said the government was also figuring out ways to give short-term assistance to people affected by the latest outbreak of fires.
Speaking with reporters and several non-governmental organization activists in his office, Hadi said work on a labor- intensive program was being devised in cooperation with the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas).
"The first priority now will be providing enough food to those affected, before taking further steps to help them cope with the current biological crisis," he said.
As reported earlier, about 5,000 people living in several remote villages in Kutai regency, 120 kilometers northwest of East Kalimantan's capital of Samarinda -- where some of the province's worst fires are burning -- are now facing food shortages.
The provincial government has sent 20 tons of rice relief to the affected villages of Ritan Baru, in Tabang subdistrict, and Pajeng Long Lees and Nyelon, Muara Ancalong subdistrict. (aan)