Global ecosystem in danger

The raging fires in Indonesia demonstrate how Southeast Asian nations have devoted huge resources to economic development at the expense of lifestyle and environmental improvements.

The region's governments have long accepted that fire is the cheapest way to clear land for cultivation. The two-week blaze that now menaces the region is believed to have been started by such a land-clearing fire.

In 1995, the Indonesian government prohibited field-burning to counter the damage it was causing. However, the prohibition has been routinely flouted by the people that matter: the timber dealers and farm owners.

The tropical forests of Southeast Asia, like the Amazonian jungles, have long been recognized as a crucial source of oxygen that needs to be preserved. Destruction of these resources imperils the global ecosystem.

The forest fires also add an extra hazard because they contribute to the problems of global warming.

It is essential that nations join forces to prevent the further destruction of natural resources that threatens the global environment.

-- Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo