Forest fires cause $900m losses

Forest fires cause $900m losses

By Hotib

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian forests are vulnerable to fires which
inflict losses, both economically and environmentally.

From July to September last year, enormous forest fires
occurred in Sumatra and Kalimantan, causing direct economic
losses of billions of dollars, inflicting health problems
nationally and internationally and jeopardizing transportation.

The catastrophe also resulted in losses of habitat,
biodiversity, flora and fauna, including Sumatran tigers, Malayan
sunbears, proboscis monkeys, orangutans, Storm's stork, the false
gavial and other species of animals as yet unidentified.

The long-term impacts naturally still remain, disturbing local
people and adjacent areas. They include the loss of hydrological
functions (which will result in increased floods and drought),
increased water pollution, loss of sustainable forestry products
and the extinction of species. To a larger extent, the fire can
result in global warming.

Indonesia and the international community inevitably hoped not
to confront such a disaster again in the future. What Indonesia
is facing in 1998 is different -- forest fires are happening
again repeatedly in East Kalimantan. Even though the extent of
the current forest fires in East Kalimantan is less than in 1997,
it will cause direct and indirect impacts both on people and the
environment.

A report said the fires had already affected more than 395,000
hectares of forests in East Kalimantan, causing about Rp 9
trillion (US$900 million) in direct and uncountable natural
biodiversity losses. The fire could not yet be extinguished due
to the condition of the fire locations and the prolonged dry
season, probably caused by the El Nino phenomenon.

A TV news report said recently that only about 60 hectares of
forests remain in the Wanariset Semboja area, where an orangutan
rehabilitation program operates.

An official said in the TV report that the last effort to
prevent fires from affecting orangutan was to create a moat
around the rehabilitation site.

A radio news report said that local people in East Kalimantan
faced a serious water scarcity as the water from the Mahakam
River was already infiltrated by sea water. About 84,000 hectares
of paddy crops could not be harvested, causing 64,000 people to
face food shortages. In addition to this, the economic crisis
which began in the middle of 1997 has weakened the purchasing
power of the local people.

Forest fires will certainly decrease Kalimantan's forest
coverage, which, according to RePProt, in 1990 reached about
395,597 square kilometers, as compared to the 2,358,566 square
kilometers of total forests in Indonesia.

In fact, during the 1968-1990 period, Kalimantan's total
forestry areas declined by seven million hectares, according to
the Ministry of Forestry and the Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO).

Apart from forestry products, Kalimantan is also rich in
natural resources such as oil, natural gas, coal and other
minerals. Kalimantan also has the largest tropical rainforest in
the Indomalayan realm, which supports measureless biodiversity
richness (mega diversity) and a fascinating place for researchers
to study natural ecosystems.

Likewise, forest fires also took place in many places in the
world, Maine and Chicago in the United States, New Brunswick in
Canada, Italy, France, Australia and the Amazon.

According to RePProt 1990, Indonesian forests as of 1990
reached around 2,358,566 square kilometers and became the world's
lung -- regulating the world's air and climate -- besides the
forests in Amazon Russia.

However, according to the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a total of 29 hectares of forests
disappear every minute in the world. And to make it worst, 50
percent of the world's forests have already been cleared and only
6 percent of the remaining 3.3 billion hectares of forests are
protected, according to the World Wild Fund's (WWF) annual report
of 1996.

Considering that such forest fires can happen anytime and
anywhere around the globe, it is deemed necessary to establish an
internationally-supported forest fire brigade which will have a
main duty to extinguish forest fires in the world. Assisted by
such a brigade, a country will be able to overcome any forest
fire more quickly than seeking other help while the fire is
expanding wider.

The existence of such a brigade will be very important to
overcome forest fires because the loss of the forest ecosystem in
any country by forest fires will also affect the international
community and global ecosystem.

Therefore, relevant international organizations, like IUCN,
WWF, RAMSAR, CITES and ITTO, should cooperate with the United
Nations (UN) to establish such a brigade.

To overcome huge forest fires in Indonesia, Australia the
United States, serious attention and action with great force is
necessary. This can only be created through worldwide cooperation
with such an international forest fire brigade.

The writer is an observer of environmental issues and staff
member of the Wetlands International-Indonesia Program.