Indonesia needs long-term tactics to beat forest fires
Indonesia needs long-term tactics to beat forest fires
By Dian Suita
JAKARTA (Antara): New hot spots have been detected in Kalimantan and Sumatra as a result of fires, which devastated millions of hectares of forest, not being entirely put out.
The office of the State Ministry of Environment reported the hot spots were located at a number of protected forests in Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu, Lampung, Central Kalimantan and East Kalimantan.
A report on early fire detection conducted by the ministry early this month says the hot spots are burning under coal deposits which is common place in Indonesian forests.
Embers have yet to cause major fires as rains helped dampen the threat, but the government warns that a disaster similar to that of 1997/1998 is looming as the dry season approaches.
Environmental expert Surna Tjahja Djajadiningrat of the Ministry of Mines and Energy warns that East Kalimantan's forests, which have 200 identified hot spots, is particularly vulnerable.
He calls on the government and environmental organizations to take the necessary precautionary measures in anticipation of a fresh conflagration.
The 1997/1998 fires destroyed an estimated 10 million hectares of forests in Kalimantan and Sumatra. The slash-and-burn land clearance technique employed to open plantations were blamed for the disaster, which also badly affected Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.
Other culprits were poor land-use plans and forest management by concessionaires as well as the government's slack supervision. The El Nino weather phenomenon worsened the situation.
Experts agree the 1997/1998 forest conflagration in Indonesia was a global environmental catastrophe.
Its economic, social and biological impact reached as far as Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines and Thailand. It was believed to have affected the global climate.
The World Wide Fund (WWF) and the Canadian Economic and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) put the financial loss at more than US$4.4 billion.
If estimates were accurate, it equaled 2.5 percent of Indonesia's Gross National Product at the time.
The forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra destroyed a considerable amount of trees, plants, agricultural products and biodiversity. They also caused health problems and crippled tourism in Indonesia and its neighboring countries, incurring a loss of about $1.4 billion.
Experts said Indonesia shouldered about 90 percent of the loss. Hospitals in affected areas were crammed with people admitted for respiratory complaints.
Revenue from tourism was said to have dropped by some $90 million in Indonesia, $300 million in Malaysia and $60 million in Singapore as holidaymakers skipped the countries due to the haze.
As forest fires have always caused substantial losses, it is advised that the Indonesian government prioritize precautionary measures rather than act after the fire ignites.
Environmentalist Jeffrey A. Sayer stresses the need for long- term solutions because the disaster occurs every dry season.
Sayer, who is director of the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor), says so far the Indonesian government and donor countries have focused only on short-term measures, which will not be effective.
"Most of the fire prevention projects are for short-term goals and they do not touch on the root of the problem.
"Besides, the type of assistance that donor countries offer does not fit the actual condition of Indonesian forests," he says. "The donors think as if they are putting out the fire in their own forests, which are different from Indonesian forests."
He noted water bombing as a method to extinguish a forest fire as a case in point. The method, he says, is effective only if the forest area is small, the plants relatively homogeneous and the water source is at hand.
If Indonesian forests catch fire this year, Indonesia and its donors do not have to waste money on short-term projects, he says.
"It would be better to spend 90 percent of the money on long- term projects."
Solutions he proposes are protecting the remaining forested land, defining land use, preparing land classification and making transparent laws on forestry.
Besides, the Indonesian government should promote reward and supervision of forest concessionaires to minimize social disturbance and fire hazard.
The result may not be seen in 10 years time but the proper measures will raise hopes for better forest management and neighboring countries will not have to worry about haze from Indonesia every time the dry season comes.