WWF puts cost of 1997 haze for RI at $1 billion

JAKARTA (JP): Last year's haze resulting from forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan cost Indonesia US$1 billion in lost revenue and health care expenditure, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

The organization yesterday announced results of an assessment carried out jointly with the Singapore-based Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA).

Ninety percent of the loss was incurred through expenditure on short-term health care. A further $90 million was attributed to lost tourist revenue, canceled flights, and airport closures, the two groups said in a statement.

"Indonesia could have used these lost resources to provide basic sanitation, water and sewage services for 40 million people, or about one third of the rural poor," EEPSEA director David Glover said in the report.

Total damage inflicted on Southeast Asia exceeded $1.3 billion, the statement said. In addition to the damage in Indonesia, the fires cost Malaysia an estimated $300 million and Singapore $12 million.

Regional loss in tourist revenue is put at $256 million, 18 percent of the total damage. Tourist revenues are an important source of foreign currency which has been acutely missed during the financial crisis which has hit Southeast Asia, the two groups said.

The study's conclusions were conservative and did not take into account the cost of long-term health effects, which it said may persist for decades and eventually exceed the cost of short- term health effects. Direct damage from the fire was also withheld from the analysis. However, the statement issued by the two groups said it was possible that this cost exceeded the damage caused by the haze.

"The loss of forest resources such as timber and rattan, the damage to biodiversity and the health of forest ecosystems has been enormous," WWF forest conservation advisor Togu Manurung said.

Last year's fires, blamed on land clearing by Indonesian plantation and timber companies, sent a thick haze over Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Thailand for several months last year.

The total area of land burned last year is unknown but the two groups believe European Union estimates of two million hectares to be conservative.

Fires have now restarted in the province of East Kalimantan and in some parts of Riau, Sumatra. An Indonesian climate expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that fires in East Kalimantan this year could be even worse than last year.

"East Kalimantan is where El Nio first affected Indonesia last year, and it will end near the same place this June, unless it is prolonged (and) lasts until the end of this year," he said.

Under a worst case scenario, "the forest fires will continue, and Malaysia and Singapore will be blanketed in haze next September and October," he said.

The imminent threat of the haze returning yesterday prompted ASEAN countries to call for international help in fighting the fires in East Kalimantan.

The appeal came in a statement issued by ASEAN environment ministers in Kuching, Malaysia, after a one-day meeting to discuss ways of dealing with the fires.

"The meeting noted that the fires in East Kalimantan are of serious concern because of the prolonged dry weather and welcomed any immediate international assistance, especially in enhancing fire-fighting capacity," the ministers said in a statement quoted by AFP. (aan)