The Indonesia Fires and Haze of 1997
11/25/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: The Indonesia fires and haze of 1997
Source: Phnom Penh Post via Papua New Guinea Independent
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 25, 1999
Byline: Bou Saroeun, Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia, and Yap Lay Hong,
Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore
THE cost of damages from the Indonesian forest fires of 1997, and the
resulting "haze", have been placed at almost US$4.5 billion for
Indonesia and neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia, an authority of
environmental economics said.
However, that amount is equal to what it would cost to provide basic
sanitation for 56 million Indonesians.
Dr David Glover, Director of Economy and Environment Program for
South East Asia (EEPSEA), addressed the cost of the haze at a
workshop on "Economics and the Environment", held in Singapore last
week. It was organised by the Asian Media Information Centre (AMIC).
"The 1997 fire and haze affected 5 million hectares in Indonesia and
70 million people throughout the region," said Dr Glover, quoting
from a study conducted by EEPSEA and the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF).
The study assessed the economic value of damage caused by the fires
and haze from August to December 1997. The types of loss studied
include both fire and haze-related damages for Indonesia, Malaysia
and Singapore.
The loss to Indonesia for fire-related damages were mainly in timber,
agriculture, direct and indirect forest benefits, biological
resources and fire-fighting costs, and amounted to US$2.788 billion.
As for Singapore and Malaysia, the major economic costs involved fire
fighting and the fire's release of carbon into the atmosphere, and
that is valued at US$285.5 million.
"Haze-related damages cost much more in Malaysia and Singapore
compared to the fire-related damages," said Dr Glover. In monetary
terms, the loss to Malaysia and Singapore was US$384.1 billion, while
the loss to Indonesia was US$1.01 billion.
The amount of damages suffered by Indonesia has exceeded the funds
needed to provide all of Indonesia's 120 million rural poor with
basic sanitation, and water and sewerage services, said Dr Glover.
The resources lost to Malaysia as a result of the haze could have
financed all of the federal government's social programs for the last
three years. And the expenditure on Malaysia's cloud-seeding efforts
would have been enough to establish a 320-hectare nature park and
maintain it for 15 years.
For Singapore, the monetary value of the tourism losses could have
fully funded the country's community chest for three years. The
community chest comprises 50 charities and benefits 180,000 people.
Losses beyond these may be incurred in the future. For example,
people may suffer long-term health damage, including an increased
risk of cancer. Tourists and foreign investors may begin to associate
the region with pollution, resulting in future losses of hard
currency.
Experts from the EEPSEA and WWF have made eight recommendations to
avoid a repetition of the "haze" disaster. These include converting
forest to rice farms, giving incentives to landowners to manage their
land better and employing no-burn methods for land clearing. The
experts have also recommended making full and prompt use of fire
monitoring data provided through regional and international programs
to identify and prosecute those responsible for illegal burning.
"For Singapore to help Indonesia is actually a good investment to
help ourselves. Not only to prevent forest fire but also to avoid
sulfur acid and toxic gas," said Dr Glover.
Reduce targets for planned forest conversion and instead establish
new plantations in unused grasslands are alternatives recommended by
the experts.
"We can't simply say no tree to be cut but what's more important is
the type of cultivation. Planting palm oil for export is important
but do we really need so much? If not, we are just turning forest to
wasteful grasslands," said Dr Glover.
EEPSEA is a development cooperation program supporting research and
training in environmental economics in 10 SEA countries. WWF is the
largest privately supported international conservation organisation
in the world dedicated to protecting the world's wildlife and wild
lands.