Forestry Ministry details damage, cause of forest fire

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo yesterday said that fires are smoldering throughout 5.11 million hectares of forests, bushes and grassland in Indonesia, mainly in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Djamaludin, armed with statistics, told a press conference yesterday that 90 percent of these fires were started by local and nomadic farmers who still practice traditional methods of slash and burn cultivation.

The minister said the government is also resigned to the fact that there is little it could do now to put out the raging forest fires except to wait for the start of the rainy season.

It is extremely difficult to control forest fires once they've started, he said. "There is nothing we can do now. We hope the rain will come."

Rain has in fact fallen in some parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan but has been sporadic and not widespread enough to put the blaze out.

Neighboring Malaysia and Singapore have complained that thick haze originating from forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan has blown in their direction causing major health hazards and disrupting air traffic.

Responding to the complaints, Djamaludin said there was nothing Indonesia could do to prevent the flow of smoke because "we all live on the same planet."

A number of non-governmental organizations have criticized the government for blaming the nomadic and traditional farmers for causing the forest fires in Kalimantan.

They said the Dayak, the dominant tribe in Kalimantan, have had generations and generations of experience in the practice of slash and burn cultivation and were unlikely to have lost control of their fires. The NGOs instead blamed the concessionaires who are clearing the forests in order to make way either for timber or plantation estates.

But Djamaludin yesterday released statistics showing concessionaires to be partly responsible for a small share of the fires.

Of the 5.11 million hectares smoldering, slash and burn cultivation areas account for around 4.6 million hectares, he said.

"The practice of slash and burn cultivation has much to do with the culture and attitude of these people who want to make a living easily," the minister said.

Losses

Only about 435,600 hectares of forests fumed and flared at the hands of forest concessionaires, plantation owners and residents in settlement areas who generally burn wood waste and tree trunks in order to clear the land, he said.

Djamaludin said the government has suffered Rp 50 billion in losses due to the smoke and fires in natural forests and re- greening forests.

While there is little that the government could do to extinguish the fires, Djamaludin said there is something it can do to prevent similar disasters in the future.

Having identified the prime cause of the fire, he said the government plans to launch a major campaign targeted at the local and nomadic people to change their methods of cultivation.

The government is also using satellites to detect fires as early as possible.

Another measure is to encourage forest concessionaires to make the wood waste into chips rather than burning it. The chips could then be sold to local pulp and paper plants or even exported.

The government will also compel forestry concessionaires to fully comply with environmental regulations and will restrict land clearing activities until environmental impact analyses have been presented and accepted, he said.

Companies would also be required to make environmental management plans and environmental monitoring plans before applying for wood utilization permits. (sim)

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