Beni RAHARJO

Forest fire is an annual event in Indonesia (Alfred, 2004; Zoumas). The most extensive forest fire occurred in 1997/1998 (Dauvergne, 1998), but actually low intensity fire takes place every year. This has become an international concern because the impact of forest fire affects neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Fire not only sends smoke blowing over many cities in Indonesia and neighbouring countries, but of course there is a considerable cost due to natural asset depletion.

Forest fire is related to land fire because both tend to occur at the same time. Therefore, in Indonesia, the term forest fire is always associated with land fire. Although there are similar terms such as wildfire, vegetation fire, grass fire or bush fire, all of them have a similar meaning i.e. an uncontrolled fire that often occurs in wildland areas, but which can also consume houses or agricultural resources, which is commonly caused by lightning, human carelessness and arson (Wikipedia). This definition stresses the uncontrolled nature of the burning as the main characteristic of forest fire.

This essay tries to find the principal causes of forest (and land) fire in Indonesia. At the beginning, it will assert that the principal causes of forest fire in Indonesia are forest concessions and forest conversions. Then, some opponents will be take alternative explanation and be compared with the supporting the assertion. The purpose of this essay is to discover the main causes of forest fire, so that humans can adapt to those factors to prevent forest fire in the future.

Causes Many agents are blamed as the causes of forest fire. It has been suggested that the large fire in 1982, which was the largest ever forest fire in one area in East Kalimantan, was caused by El-Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and irresponsible indigenous ?slash-and-burn? farmers (Dauvergne, 1998). That event recurred again in 1997/1998 when ENSO came to Indonesia. It caused larger loses but in diverse areas covering Kalimantan and Sumatra. However, it is not acceptable to blame an uncontrolled cause as the main source of forest fire. While it is probably right that a long period of drought created a huge dry flammable material, the fire could not occur if there is no heat from human-induced fire. This supports the theory that forest fire in Indonesia was caused by forest concession and conversion.

Forest concession is seen to be one of main causes of forest fire in Indonesia. Murdiarso (2002) finds that secondary roads are the most preferred means to access land, which is indicated by the sensitivity of the frequency of hotspots with distance to secondary roads. This situation puts the forest in danger, since higher accessibility means higher disturbance. People will use forest concessions?s infrastructure as the main access to the forest. Evidence shows that people tend to make a fire in forestland rather than in their own land. Mudiarso (2002) reveals that there is no indication that the community groups set fires near their homestead. Furthermore, he maintains that it is very logical that they care about their own safety, regardless of the ethnic group.

Forest conversion is another big problem. Indonesia, as one of the largest palm oil producers, has converted much of its forest into plantation. Indonesia and Malaysia are the two major competitors in the world palm oil sector (Anonymous 2006). Land clearing for those plantations will likely use fire as the cheapest method of clearing the land. Some of the forest conversions are located in peat land and tend to trigger fire, because the characteristics of peat: It is highly combustible, providing much more smoke and emissions of carbon dioxide (WWF, 2006). The WWF states fires on peat soil are complex and particularly hard to eradicate. NGO coalition in Sumatra?s Riau Province argues that the most important factor responsible for forest fire in Indonesia is forest conversion, generally on a peat soil location (WWF, 2006). The forest area that has been converted into palm oil plantation is considerable. Gellert find that in 1997 there were more than 2.7 millions ha of forestland converted into plantations.

It is probably true that we need more productive land rather than untouched forest with its inability to give us cash. Indonesia has got a lot of income through wood-based and palm oil export. Gellert maintains that Indonesia?s crude palm oil (CPO) exports were more than $ 1 billion in 1997 and this will probably increase in the future. Minister of Agriculture plans that within next 30 years, Indonesia will have 10 million hectares of palm oil plantations – currently palm oil stood among Indonesia’s big four largest export commodities – that would make Indonesia the world’s major palm oil producer (Anonymous, 2004). It is certain that forest concessions and conversions give a lot of benefits to the country?s economics, such as export and absorb local labour.

Unfortunately, we should consider the fact that plantation and forest concession convert rainforests into fire-risk and so unsustainable ecosystems (Cochrane, 2001). Forest concessions do not conform to productive management because they can?t retain their sustainability. For example, according data from Directorate of Production Forest Utilization (D-DFU, 2000), the number of forest concessions in natural forest has decreased between 1990 and 2000. This means there is more secondary forest in high fire risk condition. Natural forest in its natural condition is barely ever on fire as it is not easy to light due to its high humidity even in the dry season (Alfred, 2004). Cochrane (2001) argue that under closed-canopy forest fuels stay wet, and fire propagation is not possible.

According to Cochrane (2001) the economic cost of 1997/1998 forest fire in Indonesia was between $8.8 billion and $9.7 billion. This is much more than the $ 1 billion of the export of palm oil. Economic benefits from forest concession and conversion will not increase if we stop those, but we should consider negative impacts. The losses comprise ecosystem deprivation, changes in the water stability, reduction in evapotranspiration and increase in soil erosion (Zoumas et al). In addition, of the benefits from forest concessions, only about 30% come to government. This is still much less than from other commodities such as 85% for petroleum (Dauvergne, 1998). Furthermore, he states that low government lumber fees and royalties have allowed companies to create huge profits.

The companies claim that there are enough regulations, which prohibit forest fire in forest concession and/or palm oil plantation. In fact, the practice of burning to clear land was banned by government in 1995 (Duvergne, 1998). Unfortunately, Duvergne (1998) shows by means of satellite image that plantation companies still make most of the fires on purpose.

It seems certain that the companies do not obey the regulations. Gellert argues that the implementation of the regulation has been unsatisfactory. He also indicates that companies did not really believe that the regulation should be obeyed, which is not surprising, because the top politicians, bureaucrats, local officials and military officers have an interest in the business and good relationships with the company owners (Dauvergne, 1998). Consequently, government has no good will to eradicate the forest fire through better regulations. This is underlined by the fact the government is still needs to be forced by public to immediately approve the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (WWF, 2006).

The company supporters could say that forest fire is not only caused by forest concessions or palm oil plantation. The second Indonesian President called the terrible forest fire in 1997/1998 a natural tragedy that was mostly caused by the dry season and irresponsible indigenous ?slash-and-burn? people (Dauvergne, 1998). This statement generates an opinion that the companies are not purely guilty. Additionally, Gellert said that in the great fire in East Kalimantan involving the historical interaction between natural and anthropogenic causes. Beside that, there is coal fire in East Kalimantan, which comprises between 760 and 3000 active coal fires (Alfred, 2004). Consequently, climate agents, slash-and-burn farmers and coal fire should be blamed as the main causes of forest fire.

However, we should not blame uncontrolled agents such as climate as the main cause of the fire. Wityanara believes that the fires within the rural and wild land areas in East Kalimantan are almost all human-induced. Therefore, we could not blame El Nino as the main cause of forest fire. Also, previous Ministry Environment, Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, argue that it is unfair to blame El Nino and/or slash-and-burn farmers because the responsibility should be on foolish plantation companies outright (Gellert). This makes it clear that forest fire is mainly caused by human-induced fire.

Companies tend to blame the local people, who use fire for their land clearing. In contrast, approximate figures provided by WWF, show that fire caused by the companies was around 80% of the total whereas slash-and-burn farmers only 20% (Duvergne, 1998). Furthermore, Gellert finds that the development of palm oil plantations is the new factor in the forest fires of 1997/1998. In addition, Page (2002) hypothesizes that even peatland fire is mostly anthropogenic, but a much larger scale is by private companies and government agencies as the principal tool for clearing the forest before establishing the crops. So, there is no evidence that slash-and-burn farmers are the main causes of forest fire.

In the case of coal fire, it is probably unclear which fire was ignited first, the forest fire or the coal fire? Wityanara reveals that, only in a very limited area, burning coal seams ? mostly triggered by previous [forest] fire ? have some significant in causing wildfires. A large number of total ignitions result from forest conversion activities for industrial plantations and from escaped small-scale agriculture fires. This underlines that forest fire caused by coal fire is much less than caused by forest concessions and conversion.

Conclusion It is probably certain that in the future we will face another big fire like in 1982 or 1997/1998. It is not fair to blame uncontrolled agents as the main cause of forest fire. We can do nothing about those. Human-caused wildfires, however, are generally preventable. So, it is proper to target our efforts to deal with these rather than blame the climate. We should stop forest concession and conversion otherwise our natural forest treasure will be lost forever. Forest fire, as one of the most serious problems in Indonesia, should be stopped through stopping forest conversions and conversions.

(1717 words).

Thank to my teacher MARK HINDE

[ad#adsensecontentup]

References

Alfred, E, 2004. Indonesia?s Forest Fire and Coal Fire Cycles. The Geological Society of America (GSA). Retreived on 1 September 2006. http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2004AM/finalprogram/abstract_7760.htm
Anonymous, 2006, Indonesia?s Palm Oil Dilemma. International News on Facts, Oils and Related Materials: INFORM; March 2006; 17, 3; Academic Research Library.
Anonymous, 2004, Indonesia Aims to be Top Palm Oil Producer. International News on Facts, Oils and Related Materials: INFORM; March 2006; 17, 3; Academic Research Library.
Cochrane, Mark A. 2001. In the line of fire: Understanding the impacts of tropical forest fires. Heldref Publications.
D-PFU, Forest Concessionaires Existence Last Ten Years. Directorate of Production Forest Utilization Ministry of Forestry. Retreived on 20 September 2006. http://www.dephut.go.id/informasi/rekap_hph.htm..
Dauvergne, P., 1998. The Political Economy of Indonesia?s 1997 Forest Fires. Australian Journal of International Affairs Vol. 52, No 1.
Gellert, P.K., A Brief History and Analysis of Indonesia?s Forest Fire Crisis. Academic Research Library.
Murdiyarso, D., 2002. Fire Risks in Forest Carbon Projects in Indonesia. Science in China (Series C).
Page, S.E et al, 2002, The Amount of Carbon Released from Peat and Forest Fires in Indonesia During 1997. Nature Publishing Group.
Wityanara, Initial Steps Towards Forest Fire Prevention in East Kalimantan/Indonesia: The Integrated Forest Fire Management Approach. IFFM.
WWF, 2006. Newsroom: Forest Fire Prevention in Indonesia. Retreived on 1 September 2006.World Wildlife Fund. http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=77840
Zoumas, A., Wooster, M., Perry, G., Fire ? ENSO Relations in The S.E. Asia / A Remote Sensing Perspective.

Related posts:

1. Mangrove Forest in Tsunami Mitigation A tsunami in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004...

Tags :

Schlagworte: concession, conversion, fire, forest,