Kalimantan forest fires die down as rains come

Kalimantan forest fires die down as rains come

BALIKPAPAN, East Kalimantan (JP): Forest fires, which have
disrupted flights and reportedly sent haze to as far as Malaysia
and Singapore, have died down largely because of pouring rains.

Local officials said last week fires that has hit Kalimantan
since August have destroyed 660 hectares of forests in East
Kalimantan and the resulted financial loss is yet to be counted.

The long-awaited drizzle for the first time in the current dry
season soaked the province on Oct. 3 and continued on the
following days even though it was not as heavy as expected.

Sporadic fires broke out mostly in the Bukit Soeharto national
park stretching more than 100 kilometers from this oil town to
the East capital city of Samarinda and in state-controlled
research forests nearby.

Officials have blamed the fires, which occur every dry season,
largely on farmers who have practiced slash-and-burn farming
system generation after generation.

Forest rangers are still closely watching the burning
underground low-grade coal commonly found in the 63,000 hectare
Bukit Soeharto and its surrounding areas. The burning coal has
been identified as a natural cause of forest fires.

Gozali Abas of the forestry office in the Mahakam Hilir
regency said there were 47 places where coal is burning the whole
year in Bukit Soeharto alone.

"No special effort has been made to put out the burning coal,"
he told visiting Jakarta journalists.

Abas, who supervises poorly equipped a dozen forest rangers to
secure Bukit Soeharto, claimed that the government did not
provide money to fund his activities.

His brigade is only equipped with two water pumps, 12 sticks
to extinguish fire, 12 spades and a water truck to secure the
63,000 hectare reserve forest.

The fire has also razed part of the 27 hectare research forest
bordering the Bukit Soeharto, destroying a great number of young
trees in its demonstration plots.

Nomadic farmers

Daud Lepe of the Samarinda-based government forest research
institute said that most fires were started by nomadic farmers
who burned bushes at night when wind is blowing weak in the hope
that the fire could be contained.

Nomadic farmers burn bushes to reduce the level of the soil's
acidity so that the land becomes fertile and crops can grow.

Since the Bukit Soeharto a reserve forest, people from other
provinces who have resided within the local government has
evicted people living within the area.

Many have been resettled outside of the reserve under the
government-sponsored transmigration program. The farmers are
given substitute land and homes.

As if orchestrated, few local officials put their finger at
forest concession holders, whom various non-governmental
organizations have suspected of causing many of the fires.

But according to Ali Sofyan, chief of the special forest
police force overseeing security of the Bukit Soeharto and
surrounding forests, many concession holders do not have their
own firefighters as required by laws.

"Reforestation areas run by concession holders which have been
gutted by fire do not have security personnel deployed there," He
said.

He said the fires mostly destroyed drying bushes and
reforestation areas.

According to Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo,
this year's fires have affected more than five million hectares
of forests throughout Indonesia, mostly Kalimantan and Sumatra.
(pan)