Govt warns of possible return of forest fires

JAKARTA (JP): The government is on alert again for the possible return of brush and forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, following a particularly dry week which has seen little rain fall in the area.

Director of environmental damage control at the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal), Yon Artiono Arba'i, said the agency had warned East Kalimantan Governor Herman Musakabe about the imminent threats in the province.

Concerns about a recurrence of forest fires were sounded Saturday when a satellite report showed hundreds of hot spots in Kalimantan.

"Fires have indeed broken out in the southern part of Kutai, in the area where brush and logging remnants have been burned," Yon said. "However, we are still monitoring whether the fires were manmade."

He also confirmed yesterday another report from South Sumatra about the outbreak of new forest fires in the province.

Yon could not give details on the location of the fires.

Head of the Forest Fires Prevention and Control Project in South Sumatra's capital of Palembang, Jacques Maurer, told The Jakarta Post that the number of new fires had been "growing in the last week when the rain stopped falling".

"It seems to be peat fires," Jacques said, adding that satellite images showed that fires had broken out in licensed and industrial timber estates and forest concessionaires.

The Forest Fires Prevention and Control Project is a cooperating body between the European Union and the Ministry of Forestry that has worked in South Sumatra for three years.

The project consistently supplies National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite data on forest fires to related government institutions.

The latest fires in East Kalimantan are believed to have been caused by foliage which began to smolder due to the drought.

The drought afflicting Indonesia is now expected to continue until June. It has been labeled the "second dry season" by the Integrated Forest Fire Management (IFFM), a German-sponsored cooperating body operating in East Kalimantan.

Antara reported yesterday that of 60,000 hectares of paddy fields and crops in the province, 20,000 hectares would fail to harvest due to insufficient rainfall.

Head of the East Kalimantan agricultural office Sofyan Alex said in Samarinda that most of the paddy fields in the province were dependent on the monsoon.

"Some farmers have even had to plant their crop seeds twice, because the first seeds died in the drought," Sofyan said.

He said 14 subdistricts, known as the province's rice producing centers, have been badly hit.

The province would have been able to harvest next month had it not been for the "second dry season", he said.

According to Sofyan, rice production is expected to plunge from the expected 460,000 tons to just 21,000 tons. (aan)