Kalimantan forests face desperate threat
Kalimantan forests face desperate threat
By Miskudin Taufik
JAKARTA (ANTARA): Expecting the forests of Kalimantan to still be the lungs of the world in 2001 is only a dream.
The forest management system here is still inadequate and hot spots caused by underground fires in coal seams continue to pose a great threat to the embattled forests of Indonesian Borneo.
International forest fire experts who have studied the situation say that underground coal fires are continuing to spread and that it is only a matter of time before huge areas of land -- protected forests, timber estates, smallholder estates and residential areas -- are engulfed in flames.
"This is not a new development. It has been a fact since hot spots first appeared in forest areas in the eastern part of Kalimantan in 1983," said a volunteer forest fire researcher from Mulawarman University in Samarinda, East Kalimantan.
International concern for forest fires in Kalimantan peaked in 1991 and the succession of infernos that raged over the next seven years barely attracted comment, with the sole exception of last year when the international media once again showed an interest.
Forest fires break out every year and are invariably blamed on coal fires, peat fires or slash and burn farmers.
And smoke from the fires has plagued nearby countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.
To date there has been no sign that those responsible for starting the forest fires will be brought to justice.
When Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam lodged strong complaints about the fires in 1997, the Indonesian government, seemed determined to take those allegedly responsible to court.
"We will calm down all the protests with judges' rulings," then coordinating minister for people's welfare Azwar Anas said.
In early 1998 he entered into lengthy negotiations with representatives of Malaysia's National Agency for Disaster Management aimed at preventing a recurrence of widespread burning.
Unfortunately, this desire to take preemptive measures and to punish those responsible for the fires has now waned and the 176 forest concessionaires who operate in Kalimantan and Sumatra have resumed their irresponsible destruction of the nation's forests.
Last month in Riau, Bangkinang District Court ruled in favor of a company accused of burning and destroying the forest. The same has happened in Palembang, South Sumatra, where of nine of 11 companies taken to court by the environmental non-governmental organization Walhi were let off the hook.
The remaining two companies were simply told to improve their management of the forest and establish a forest fire brigade.
Worse
In East Kalimantan, the province worst affected by the fires, the situation is even worse.
Local police did interview a number of suspects, but thereafter the trail went cold.
"The extent of forest areas destroyed by fire may be more than 1 million hectares," East Kalimantan deputy governor Chaidir Hafids said.
Chaidir went on the record to express his disappointed at progress made by the police toward bringing those responsible to justice, despite complaints made by people from all walks of life in the province.
Non-governmental organizations in Central Kalimantan have expressed similar disappointment at the fact that absolutely nobody has been brought to trial for starting forest fires.
"Who has to pay for the huge losses?" asked Muhaiddin Amin, a volunteer from Lambung Mangkurant University in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.
Muhaiddin is conducting field research into fire damage in production and protected forests in Central Kalimantan.
Hot spots are detected in East Kalimantan using satellite technology belonging to the Regional Agency for Environmental Control (Bapelda) in collaboration with a number of institutions in neighboring countries.
Joint research conducted by the U.S. mining department-funded Coal Energy Fire Protection Project shows that fires in coal seams running below the forests of East Kalimantan still pose a major threat despite the fact that it is currently the rainy season.
There are still at least 68 hot spots capable of igniting forests in a number of areas, particularly protected and production forests near Balikpapan, Samarinda, Bontang and Sangatta.
"These hot spots above coal-induced underground fires will roast Kalimantan forests the whole year," said Alfred E. Whitehouse, who manages the project.
He predicted that major forest fires will recur after the La Nia effect comes to an end in the middle of next year.