Reckless farming in peatland forests major cause of fires

Reckless farming in peatland forests major cause of fires

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The forest fires raging in Kalimantan are a result of a natural
phenomenon combined with human recklessness.

Indonesia has the most extensive area of tropical peat land in
the world, with 27 million hectares scattered throughout West and
Central Kalimantan, Merauke and Nabire in Irian Jaya and along
the east coast of Sumatra.

Peat land is organic soil that has formed for over thousands
of years from decomposed vegetation and other life forms and it
can go down as far as seven meters. It contains hydrocarbon,
which makes it flammable. Once a fire starts there, it is
difficult to put out because the peat content keeps the heat
below the surface.

Most of the forests in Kalimantan and Sumatra are peat swamp
forests that can easily burn.

This natural condition has been aggravated by shifting
cultivation. People often burn forests and shrubs when opening
land up for farming in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

In 1995, the Soeharto government embarked on an ambitious plan
to convert over one million hectares of peat moss land in Central
and South Kalimantan into rice-producing areas. The project was
believed to have caused an escalation in forest fires in recent
years.

In 1999, forest fires razed 510,177 hectares of forests, of
which 508,000 hectares or 99 percent were in the province of East
Kalimantan. The extent of the area devastated by fires was much
worse than in 1998, when 300,000 hectares of forest were burned
to the ground.

The indigenous Dayak people in Kalimantan have developed a
system to prevent fires from spreading while they clear peat land
for farming.

Unfortunately, migrants from Java and other areas outside
Kalimantan who do not know how to manage peat land, recklessly
burn the vegetation there. Oil palm plantation owners also prefer
to clear forests by burning the vegetation to keep production
costs low.

In the meantime, there has been no real effort from the
government to educate people in this matter. It is not surprising
that forest fires will continue to be an annual catastrophe for
many years to come.