Red tape blamed for government's slow progress on fires
Red tape blamed for government's slow progress on fires
PC Naommy, Jakarta
One reason why it takes so long to put out fires here is that the
essential information needed winds up and down the halls of
officialdom, a forest fire expert said.
Forest fire expert Bambang Hero Saharjo from the Bogor
Agricultural Institute (IPB) cited on Saturday the fact that at
the level of the local authorities, it normally takes two weeks
to get hot spot coordinates -- at the fastest -- due to red tape.
"So it would be too late, even for the forest fire brigades to
take action in putting out the fires," said Bambang.
An official at the Ministry of Forestry's information center,
however, said local officials should take the initiative
themselves to access the relevant information on the ministry's
website.
Forest fires recur every dry season despite various measures
at the regional, national and local level. The last fires
occurred last month, leading to haze which disrupted flights and
endangered the health of people both at home and in neighboring
Malaysia and Singapore.
Bambang added that while the slash and burn method can still,
under certain conditions, be tolerated for farmers with land
holdings under two hectares, it is not allowed for plantation
companies.
The economic crisis and high operational costs of heavy
equipment for land clearing have been cited as excuses for the
continued use of slash and burn methods by companies.
Meanwhile, measures to prevent fires are still ignored,
such as information on how to regulate land clearing in a safe
way, meteorologist Edi Santoso said.
Edi, who works at the Agency For the Assessment and
Application of Technology (BPPT) suggested that lack of
coordination hampered the application of technology.
His colleague Izzat Farahidy added, "The use of technology to
prevent fires will not be seen as binding unless local
governments support its implementation through the law."
The Agency has already developed the Fire Danger Rating System
(FDRS), a technology adopted from Canada that helps local
governments to prevent fires caused by the slash and burn
agriculture.
The information which local authorities, companies and farmers
could use, Edi said, includes "recommendations on regulating
when, how, and where the slash and burn method could be applied."
The country currently has 126 automatic weather stations
complete with the FDRS technology and plans to add 21 new
stations in West and Central Kalimantan, South and North Sumatra,
and Riau, which areas normally have a high number of hot spots.
The government developed the technology in the aftermath of
the worst forest and scrub fires in 1997/1998 which caused a loss
of 11.7 million hectares of forest and some US$10 billion worth
of timber and disruption of economic activities.
Other information provided by the Meteorology and Geophysics
Agency (BMG) and the forestry ministry include that of wind
direction, the incidence of rain, and information on trees and
shrubs that are highly combustible.
The offices' analysis gives four forest fire indicators: Blue
meaning low risk, green for medium risk, yellow for high risk,
and red for extreme conditions.
Meteorologist Edi said that while the slash and burn method
was the cheapest, people should refer to the safer methods of
agriculture used by traditional farmers. He said they would take
into account the direction of the wind, humidity and the position
of the sun before starting to clear land.