New drive to prevent forest fires launched

JAKARTA (JP): With the new dry season underway, the government launched a new drive yesterday to prevent forest fires and a repetition of last year's environment and health catastrophes.

The campaign is chiefly targeted at timber companies, as well as state and private companies which open new transmigration areas, with warnings that they could no longer use the traditional method of burning forests to clear land tracts. Companies that violate this rule stand to lose their business licenses.

The campaign was launched at a forestry estate project owned by PT Musi Hutan Persada in the Subanjeriji village of the Muara Enim regency in South Sumatra. The ceremony was led by State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, Antara reported.

President Soeharto, in his written message read at the ceremony, stressed that prevention was far easier and better than containing forest fires.

The time has come to stop the practice of burning forests because it is dangerous as well as detrimental, according to the speech read by Sarwono.

"We have to develop other methods of clearing land, without using fire," he said, adding that chips and other waste resulting from felling trees have potential commercial value.

Present at the ceremony were Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo, Armed Forces Chief of General Affairs Lt. Gen. Soeyono and governors of all the provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Last year's brushfires began in July and quickly spread, mainly in Sumatra and Kalimantan. The fires were put out when the rainy season began, which, last year, came in November, later than usual.

The forest fires caused thick smog in most parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan and was blown over neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, disrupting commercial life and causing health hazards in many areas.

Soeharto, in his speech yesterday, appealed to everyone concerned to make a new beginning this year, the year Indonesia marks its 50th independence anniversary, in preventing forest fires and preserving the nation's natural resources.

After the ceremony, Sarwono told reporters that the government is determined that forest fires of the scale seen last year would not be repeated this year.

The campaign is the result of various coordination meetings which began in February. A coordinating team for the prevention of forest fires has also been established, he said.

Djamaludin said the campaign is aimed at making the business community more aware of their environmental responsibilities.

He said his office would rescind the business permits of companies which still burn forests. "That's all we can do so far. We cannot take them to court because there are no regulations for that." (emb)