Environmental Agency Denies El Nino Responsible for Haze
11/12/97
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Headline: Environmental Agency Denies El Nino Responsible for Haze
Source: Agency France-Presse
Date: 11/12/97
Copyright 1997 by Agence France-Presse
JAKARTA, Nov 13 (AFP) - An Indonesian environmental agency has
refuted government claims that the El Nino weather pattern is the
main cause of the forest fires raging across the country, reports
said Thursday.
"El Nino does not start fires, but only makes forests
susceptible to fire," the Indonesian Observer quoted the
Environmental Impact Management Agency, a government body under the
environmental minister, as saying.
The agency's deputy head of environmental pollution, Nabiel
Makarim, said he disagreed with the official explanation that El
Nino was behind what the government has declared to be a "natural
disaster".
The National Disaster Control Body and government officials have
said this year's freak El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific has
been responsible for the fires, which many environmental groups
blame largely on slash-and-burn land clearing methods.
"The 1997 forest and land fires are largely due to land
clearance activities using that method. El Nino is only an
additional factor," Makarim told the newspaper.
Small farmers as well as large plantation and timber estates
have been repeatedly threatened with government sanctions if they
continue to use fire to clear land for harvesting or expansion.
The government so far this year has revoked 151 licenses for 29
timber companies found guilty of using illegal burning practices to
clear their concessions for new plantation or expansion.
Another 48 companies are still being investigated, the daily
wrote.
"They (the affected areas) were intentionally set ablaze by
those in charge of them," the agency's director of environmental
degradation, Yon Aritono Arba'i, added.
He said the fires this year had destroyed 320,000 hectares
(790,000 acres) of forest on the islands of Java, Sumatra and
Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo island.
Indonesia's leading evironmental watchdog, Walhi, said the
amount of land destroyed is closer to 1.7 million hectares.
Arba'i added that companies continued to defy government
warnings and a presidential ban on land clearing practices issued
after Malaysia, Singapore and other neighbouring countries
complained of the choking smog blowing over from Indonesia.
Environment Minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja has repeatedly said
his ministry had no authority to impose punishments against the
large plantation and logging firms.
The drought currently gripping the country has been prolonged by
the El Nino weather pattern that occurs when trade winds slow and
allow the Pacific Ocean to heat up.
This year's El Nino, one of the worst on record, has delayed
rains by several months, causing crop failures in numerous provinces
and the spread of disease due to a lack of clean water.
The health of more than 20 million Indonesians is said to be at
risk from the haze, which continues to blanket numerous cities and
shows little sign of abating before the new year.