Govt to intensify fight against forest fires

Govt to intensify fight against forest fires

JAKARTA (JP): The government is to intensify its battle
against forest and land fires in East Kalimantan through cloud
seeding this week, a senior Ministry of Forestry official said
yesterday.

Director General of Forest Protection and Nature Preservation
Soemarsono said cloud seeding was needed to back up fire-fighting
efforts on the ground.

"Details of the plan are being prepared, but Insya Allah (God
willing) we'll start Friday. The operation will include clearing
the haze and then seeding clouds," he said.

Soemarsono said fires have ravaged more than 12,000 hectares
of land and forest since January when the monsoon stopped.

He said the razed areas included 2,500 hectares in Kutai
National Park, 7,000 hectares in industrial timber estates, 1,700
hectares in plantations, and the rest in the Bukit Soeharto
forest reserve and other logging concessions.

He said the government would only fight the fires raging in
protected parks and forests while the rest would be left to the
forest and plantation concessionaires to extinguish.

Last week the government dispatched a Transal C-160 water
bomber to fight fires in the protected forest, while a water
bomber will be deployed this Thursday.

Soemarsono said fire fighters on the ground -- comprising
members of the Armed Forces, government, NGOs, and local people
-- had also been adequately equipped.

Last year fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra -- declared a
national disaster -- razed more than 300,000 hectares of land and
forest. They caused millions of people here and in neighboring
countries to suffer health problems, delayed thousands of flights
and resulted in a sharp drop in tourist arrivals.

Last year's disaster was largely blamed on timber and palm oil
company owners, but none have so far been charged with any
criminal offenses.

In East Kalimantan this year, Antara reported, 17 timber and
palm oil companies had been warned by the local government for
starting fires.

East Kalimantan Governor H.M. Ardans was also quoted by the
news agency as saying yesterday that fires in the province had
been caused by "an over-exploitation" of the forest.

As many as 65 forest concessionaires were exploiting 11
million of the 21 million hectares of forest in the province,
Ardans said.

The vastness of the areas given to concessionaires has made it
difficult for the local government to supervise land clearing, he
said.

He said the fires were "not the sins of the East Kalimantan
people".

In Yogyakarta, Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo
opened yesterday the five-day meeting of the 17th session of the
Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission.

Sponsored by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture
Organization, the meeting is being attended by delegates from 22
countries and 10 intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations.

Djamaludin said Indonesia developed industrial forests in
order to protect its declining natural forest and secure supplies
of raw material for forest-related industries.

Indonesia currently has 3.2 million hectares of industrial
forest, 1.2 million hectares of which are in Java. The country
plans to plant to 6.2 million hectares of industrial forest.

To meet the target, the country is currently converting an
average of between 250,000 and 300,000 hectares of its natural
forest into industrial forest each year.

"We can't be too dependent on natural forest as it grows very
slowly and yields only about one cubic meter of wood per hectare
per year. An industrial forest, on the other hand, can produce up
to 20 to 25 cubic meters of wood per hectare per year," he said.
(swa/aan)