Minister Juwono blames timber estates for forest fires

Minister Juwono blames timber estates for forest fires

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Environment Juwono Sudarsono
said yesterday that timber estates were responsible for about 65
percent of the current forest fires in East Kalimantan.

The minister said 65 percent of more than 150,000 hectares of
forest razed by fires this year belonged to commercial companies
and added the fires were being lit deliberately for land-clearing
purposes.

"The land-clearing activities are intentional, but the problem
is that the fires have become uncontrollable as they were not
well monitored," Juwono said after meeting with President
Soeharto at the latter's private residence on Jl. Cendana,
Central Jakarta.

Juwono accompanied the President in a meeting with Klaus
Topfer, the executive director of the Nairobi-based United
Nations Environment Program (UNEP), to discuss the organization's
contribution to help control forest fires in Indonesia and in
Southeast Asia.

"The President welcomes the UNEP's offer and ordered me to
follow up the cooperation," Juwono said.

Topfer also handed over a letter from UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan to the President. The UN leader promised in the letter
to do his best to assist in the management of the fires and their
impacts.

"It is our main aim to come to a very, very proper judgment on
what is needed, what can be integrated, what is also, on the
technical and financial side, necessary to decrease at least the
negative repercussions to the people living there," Topfer
explained after the meeting. He declined to elaborate.

This year's disaster in East Kalimantan is more serious than
last year's because then fires destroyed only 37,092 hectares of
the province.

Most of the land-clearing is aimed at opening new oil palm
plantations, and burning is regarded as the cheapest method.

The southern part of the province, including Samarinda,
Balikpapan, the Kutai National Park and Bukit Soeharto National
Park are considered prone to fires.

The rainy season has started in the north, in Tarakan and
Bulungan regencies.

After a separate meeting with the President yesterday, East
Kalimantan Governor H.M. Ardans said the fires from 808 hot spots
had caused more than Rp 2.1 trillion (US$220 million) in material
losses in last three months, excluding damage to the province's
rich forestry biodiversity.

Juwono said ministers of environment from the members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would hold a-two
day meeting starting tomorrow in Brunei.

"We hope to establish a center or an agency to tackle forest
and land fires in the whole ASEAN region," Juwono remarked.

The smog from the fires is spreading across the region
especially Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei sacked Haji Johar Dato Haji
Noodin as his minister of health last month for his failure to
protect the sultanate's citizens from the noxious fumes.

"Personally I think it will require at least $2 billion to $3
billion (to extinguish the fires)," Juwono noted.

The minister will also propose that ASEAN jointly purchases
Canadian-made CL-205 water bombers, regarded as one of the most
sophisticated fire-fighting aircraft in the world.

Minister of Forestry Sumahadi said last week that the
government would need at least six CL-205 water bombers to
combat the fires in East Kalimantan.

"The President told me that Canadian Prime Minister Jean
Chretien had offered his help in the form of the planes," Juwono
noted.

Soeharto and Chretien talked to each other by telephone
earlier this week. (prb)