Rp 5 trillion in timber revenue up in flames

JAKARTA (JP): The country has lost over Rp 5 trillion (US$625 million) in timber revenues due to fires which have ravaged more than 283,000 hectares of forest in East Kalimantan.

The head of the provincial office of the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda), Awang Faroek Ishak, said fires had destroyed at least 105,900 hectares belonging to logging concessionaires, 75,600 hectares on timber estate areas and 71,000 hectares in Kutai National Park.

He said the disaster had also damaged forestry by-products such as wood resin and rattan. It has also destroyed some of the area's natural biodiversity, a loss which is "unaccountable", he said as quoted by Antara.

He noted that the area's local population had been worst hit by the tragedy, with many losing their sources of raw material for dyeing their Ulap Doyo traditional clothing. He described their plight as "doubled" given the economic hard times befalling the country.

Intensive efforts to put out the fires have so far proven futile.

Efforts to extinguish the blazes -- blamed largely on big companies and farmers using slash-and-burn methods to clear land for planting -- have generally been unsuccessful in the drought- stricken province where little rain has fallen since last July.

On Wednesday, a United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team said at least 10,000 firefighters, supported by water bombers, were needed if efforts to extinguish the blazes were to prove effective.

However, the UNDAC team said that sustained rain remained the only effective way to put out the fires.

The United States pledged $2 million yesterday to help fight the forest fires and prevent further environmental damage in Indonesia.

Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth said here yesterday that the money was exclusively for Indonesia and separate from a $4 million "Southeast Asia Environmental Initiative" recently approved by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and involving other countries in the region.

The provincial capital of Samarinda got some respite from the dry weather yesterday when rain soaked the area for about 45 minutes.

Residents poured out onto the streets to welcome the first major downpour of the year. Many brought out buckets and water containers to catch the rain.

In a news conference yesterday, the World Wide Fund for Nature-Indonesia Program (WWF-IP) said fires in lowland forests had "significantly" accelerated the extinction rate of Pongo Pygmaeus, a rare local orangutan species.

Two WWF-IP's species conservation experts, Ron Lilley and Barita O. Manullang, said that unless a new concerted conservation effort were initiated soon, the mammal would be gone forever.

"The 50 percent of the Kutai National Park space left is not enough for the orangutans," primate expert Manullang said, referring to the 200,000-hectare conservation park in the province.

Neither Manullang nor Lilley knew the actual number of orangutan left in the province, but Manullang pointed out that the government put the number at about 2,000.

Manullang said the organization was currently exploring the possibility of recommending the forest area stretching from Lake Sentarum to Lake Bentuang Karimun in the province as a "natural conservation corridor" which could help increase the natural habitat for orangutans. (aan)