A Brief History and Analysis of Indonesia's Forest Fire Crisis

Abstract

In ad d ition to the W orld Bank and the IM F, the A ustralian econom ist H al H ill h as been[I]f human activity continues to intensify, the next major fire event will be much worse." 5In 1982-83 a series of well-known fires burned 3.2 million hectares of forest in East Kalimantan. These fires were more extensive and also more thoroughly researched than any previous fires in the region. German foresters and their Indonesian colleagues, especially, produced comprehensive studies of the event.6 Out of these and other studies came a new appreciation of the naturalness of fire in the tropics, particularly Kalimantan, and more importantly, of the growing impact of humans on the spatial extent and intensity of burning. They also point to the fact that the lessons that could have been gleaned from these previous fires were not learned; the reason for this failure, I would argue, is the political economy of resource extraction in Indonesia. The Naturalness of Fire and Anthropogenic FactorsForest ecologists have begun to recognize the natural importance of fire and the dangers of complete fire suppression. In the US, for example, fire is now understood as critical to healthy regeneration of certain ecosystems, such as prairies in the midwest. Total fire prevention, the sort of policy advocated in the old Smoky the Bear campaigns, carries with it the danger of ultimately producing more intense fires due to excessive build-up of flammable material; the disastrous fires that have visited Yellowstone National Park and southern California residential areas make this lesson clear. In the everwet (or perhumid) tropics, the situation is different since the rapid cycling of organic material means that little organic waste accumulates on the forest floor. Yet in the tropics, too, there is a "natural" fire regime, though it hardly resembles that of temperate zones.7In East Kalimantan, Goldammer and Seibert have found charcoal residue evidence of ancient wildfires that were Carbon-14 dated between circa 17,510 BP and 350 BP. These dates reveal that "wildfires occurred not only during the dry Pleistocene, but also after the present wet, rain forest climate stabilized, at about 10,000 to 7,000 BP."8 Goldammer and Seibert argue further that during the last glaciation the lowland Sunda shelf (off present-day Borneo's east coast) and today's remnant lowlands were drier and experienced "frequent droughts and fires," thereby preventing a few

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“…On the other hand, unlogged forests experience less damage, and therefore, are only susceptible to small-intensity surface fires. Evidence of this can be seen in the case of Kalimantan, where 97% of logged forest and peat were destroyed by fire, as compared to 11%-17% of unlogged forest [16].…”

“…Farmers are compelled to grow oil palm to reap the most economic benefits possible from shrinking farm acreage [3]. Forest areas burnt during the 1980s' fires expedited their development into plantations via burning [16]. Since fire is the cheapest and fastest means of clearing land, it was found that 80% of the forest fires were deliberately ignited by plantation companies, and the other 20% by farmers [3,13].…”

“…In addition, Duta Palma, an Indonesian plantation company, escaped investigation despite extensive history of illegal S & B due to relations with the Indonesian military [13]. Moreover, despite suspending land clearing licences, most companies responsible for the 1997-1998 forest fires continued illegal S & B, even pushing the blame onto one another or to accidents [16].…”

“…Since fire is the cheapest and fastest means of clearing land, it was found that 80% of the forest fires were deliberately ignited by plantation companies, and the other 20% by farmers [3,13]. Rapid development in the oil palm sector during the 1990s led Indonesia to expand oil palm plantations to become the world's biggest producer of palm oil, producing 51% of worldwide yields [13,16]. Between 1990-1997, land designated for oil palm plantations doubled to 2.5 million hectares and was projected to increase to 5.5 million hectares by 2000 [17].…”

“…Furthermore, when trees in dense tropical forests are felled, the intertwined roots and vines uproot other trees as well, exacerbating the extent of the aftermath of logging [15]. Logged forests are much more susceptible to fires in comparison to unlogged forests since logging translates into more forests burned and more crown fires [16]. On the other hand, unlogged forests experience less damage, and therefore, are only susceptible to small-intensity surface fires.…”