Fire, People and Pixels: Linking Social Science and Remote Sensing to Understand Underlying Causes and Impacts of Fires in Indonesia

Abstract

This study in the wake of 1990s fire catastrophes identifies and analyzes underlying causes of vegetation fires in eight locations across Borneo and Sumatra. Multidisciplinary and multiscale analysis integrates geospatial technologies with varied social research approaches and participatory mapping. It helps fill a void of site-specific evidence on diverse underlying causes of the Indonesian fires, despite emerging consensus on macrolevel causes and impacts, and policy debates on preventing future fire disasters. Our most important findings include confirmation of multiple direct and underlying fire causes at each of the eight locations, no single dominant fire cause at any site, and wide differences in fire causes among sites. Conclusions emphasize the importance of location specific studies within a regional analytical context. Our "hybrid" research methods demonstrate the explanatory power of integrating geospatial and social analysis techniques, and the benefits of analyzing fire causes and impacts at multiple scales in varied locations across diverse regions.

The impacts and opportunities of oil palm in Southeast Asia: What do we know and what do we need to know?

“…Underlying causes of fires within the boundary of oil palm concessions are, however, disputed and likely complex, and the blame for such fires does not always lie with concession management (Dennis et al 2005).…”

Environmental services and land use change in Southeast Asia: from recognition to regulation or reward?

“…Remote sensing and social science investigations using participatory mapping conducted by a team of researchers from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the United States Forest Service (USFS), showed that both smallholders and large-scale plantations used fire as a tool, primarily for land clearing but also in specific contexts in extractive activities (Applegate et al, 2001;Dennis et al, 2004;Suyanto et al, 2002). For the first time, these social science investigations also have documented specific patterns in the use of fire as a weapon; arson arising from land disputes was shown to be an important albeit secondary factor.…”

“…It is encouraging that the CIFOR-ICRAF-USFS research on underlying causes has begun to discern meaningful patterns in the shape and extent of remotely sensed burn scars and to relate those burn scars to the underlying causes and broader environmental and social context documented in the social science studies (Dennis et al, 2004). This holds promise as a cheap and replicable tool for future fire forensic investigations, but it is not yet possible to attribute shares of the smoke problem between smallholders and large operators or arising from purposive burning (for land clearing, resource extraction, or arson) and accidents on the scale of large areas, such as Sumatra and Borneo.…”

“…Hoare's documentation of significant incidence of accidental fires (and similar results for Indonesia) indicate a role for training programs in fire awareness and management. But the evidence from the CIFOR-ICRAF-USFS studies in Sumatra and Borneo, indicating that most fires are set deliberately, means that training alone will not be sufficient and that more fundamental attention to underlying driving forces, particularly the effects of insecure land tenure and property disputes (Dennis et al, 2004;Suyanto et al, 2002) will be necessary to manage the smoke problem. The private economic gains related to the causes of fire so far have not been effectively off-set by negative incentives that reflect the public costs.…”

“…Hoare's study (this volume) of community and provincial level efforts in Northern Thailand moves longstanding interest in local institutional measures for management of fire and smoke from the anecdotal to the practical assessment of actual experience based on smoke mitigation interventions at this level. Even more fundamental is evidence from Indonesia (Applegate et al, 2001;Suyanto et al, 2002;Dennis et al, 2004) showing direct links between smoke and land tenure problems, thereby also establishing much more clearly how resolution of conflicts over property rights and resource access underpins a comprehensive approach to the problem.…”