Preventing future forest fires

Preventing future forest fires

By Aleksius Jemadu

This is the first of two articles on how we can prevent forest
fires in the future.

BANDUNG (JP): Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo
announced recently that forest fires over the last few months
have destroyed 96,000 hectares of forest areas, consisting of
70,000 hectares of productive forests -- including some 15,000 on
timber estates -- and 26,000 hectares of protected forests. In
financial terms the losses on timber estates amounted to Rp 45
billion (US$11.8 million) given an average value of Rp 3 million
per hectare (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 7,1997). Another casualty of
this national disaster is Indonesia's reputation abroad.

Forest fire is one of the main causes of deforestation in
Indonesia. According to World Bank calculations, it deforests an
area of 70,000 to 100,000 hectares annually (World Bank, 1990).
Over the last few months forest fires have resulted in thick haze
both here and in Malaysia and Singapore. The haze caused several
airports in Sumatra and Kalimantan to temporarily close down for
several days. In Riau, Jambi, Palangkaraya and Kuala Lumpur the
haze has also reportedly posed respiratory problems to many. The
Indonesian government has declared these forest fires a national
disaster.

In order to sustain our remaining natural forest resources and
to restore our international credibility, our challenge now is
how to prevent forest fires from reoccurring. While it is good
news that the government has revoked wood-use licenses of
plantations and timber companies who failed to present
documentation disproving the government's allegations that they
are responsible for starting brush and forest fires, preventive
measures should be enacted.

Government officials at the Ministry of Forestry and the elite
of timber associations tend to think that slash and burn
activities practiced by local people are the major cause of
forest fires in the outlying islands. Based on such a perception
(or misperception?) the government has established different
forms of social forestry programs through which the local
population are encouraged to participate in afforestation and
reforestation activities. The forest village development program
sponsored by forest concessionaires (HPH Bina Desa Hutan program)
has turned out to be the most extensive social forestry
development.

According to Minister of Forestry Decrees No. 691/1991 and No.
69/1995, on which the formulation and implementation of this
program are based, there are several objectives that the
government wants to achieve through the program. The program is
expected to raise the income level of the villagers; provide
employment and small business opportunities; promote
environmentally friendly rural economies; provide adequate social
and economic infrastructures; create a new awareness and positive
behavior among forest villagers, so that they can participate in
the sustainable management of forest resources and so the
practice of shifting cultivation might be controlled.

From these objectives, we can see how central policy-makers
perceived or defined policy problems regarding the incorporation
of the environmental dimension into forest management. The
content of the two decrees seems to be based on a widely debated
assumption that if forest villagers could develop economic
activities other than slash and burn agriculture, then the human
threat to forest management would be minimized. Thus, the program
very much reflects the concern of the Ministry of Forestry over
forest destruction by the so-called peladang berpindah (nomadic
farmers).

While many would doubt the validity of this assumption, we
just want to underline the fact that it is the central government
authorities who dominated the formulation of the policy problems.
In fact, the formulation of the policy problems was conducted
unilaterally by the Ministry of Forestry without an extensive and
thorough consultation with provincial and district governments,
much less the villagers themselves.

Central government officials seemed to receive much
information and policy input from forest concessionaires and the
elite of timber business associations, who are widely known as
the main proponent of the view that nomadic farmers are to blame
for forest degradation.

The problem of shifting cultivation, which is perceived by the
government officials at the Ministry of Forestry and the elite of
timber associations as a major cause of forest fires in the
outlying islands, is technically an agricultural problem.
Obviously the challenge is how to develop alternative
agricultural or farming systems that would be suitable to the
soil and ecological conditions in the outlying islands which nota
bene are quite different from those of Java.

It is quite surprising to find that the involvement of the
Ministry of Agriculture and its lower level agencies in the
formulation of the forest village development program was only
accidental. The promotion of permanent agriculture and irrigated
rice fields in the outlying islands cannot be based on
improvisation by inexperienced staff members of timber companies,
but should be under the routine supervision of government
officials from agricultural agencies.

Milton J. Esman (1988) introduced the concept of
multiorganizational service networks which could be very useful
if applied to the governance of the forestry sector outside Java.
Let us see how this concept can be applied in the implementation
of forest village development programs.

Application of this concept would require the transfer of
management and protection of forest areas (at least people's TFAs
or Traditional Forest Areas) from the government (Ministry of
Forestry) to local communities. Each step in the policy process
should be carried out in consultation with, and the consent of,
the local people, without whom the plans will fail.

First of all, government authorities delineate forest areas to
be managed and protected by local people. They should identify
the existence of forest products that can be generated on a
sustainable basis and the real possibility of selling them in
accessible local markets.

The second step is to form small groups of people, with each
group linked to one specific block of forest. Of particular
importance at this stage is to make sure that every individual of
the group gets an equal share of the benefits, and is involved in
making decisions on forest management. This is an effective
mechanism to commit the group to conserve the forest since it is
directly linked to their interests.

The third step is to divide the forest areas into blocks.
There should be a match between the size of the block and its
ability to make a "significant contribution" to the income of the
individual families. Negotiations regarding the size of the
blocks should be made possible.

Fourth, agreements should be drawn up between the groups and
the government, in which the government retains the ownership of
the forest areas and every group is responsible for the
sustainability of forest resources. The local people are
authorized to manage and protect the forest area and are
convinced that the government is sincere in sharing the benefits
from the use of forest resources.

The fifth step is to develop the skills of local people. In
doing this it is highly recommended that the people's pertinent
knowledge on traditional sustainable management practices be
combined with modern forestry management for commercial gain. In
addition, local people also need to improve their basic knowledge
of money management, accounting, sale negotiations and marketing.

Finally, an equitable benefit-sharing system should be
created. This is to ensure that the project and all the benefits
of forest products (such as fodder, grasses, fuelwood, timber,
non-timber forest products) belong to all members of the group
and are not confined to the rural elite (A. Banerjee and H.
Mishra, 1995).

The writer is the director of the Parahyangan Center for
International Studies at UNPAR, Bandung. His research areas
include global politics and environmental problems in developing
countries.