Indonesian Fires Smoulder Through August
8/30/99
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Title: Indonesian Fires Smoulder Through August
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 30, 1999
JAKARTA, Indonesia, August 30, 1999 (ENS) - A new report from
Indonesian National Environmental Impact Management Agency issued
Saturday says fires in the country's Sumatra and Kalimantan regions
have destroyed at least 5,560 hectares (13,738 acres) of forest and
scrub in the past month, the Antara News Agency of Indonesia said.
A meeting of the region's environment ministers in Singapore Thursday
called on Indonesia to take urgent action to prevent a renewal of the
1997 crisis when fires caused by burning for land clearing blanketed
the entire region with thick smoke for months.
The government of President B.J. Habibie has imposed a "zero-burning"
policy. Still, the fires have not stopped. Fires in Sumatra's Riau
province alone have caused losses of 8.9 bln rupiah since July.
The Indonesian National Environmental Impact Management Agency
defined the cost estimate from the Riau fires in terms of lost income
from the forestry sector and the need for funds to replace trees. It
excluded in its estimate economic losses caused by poor visibility
sparked by the haze and increased costs for the resulting health
care.
Forest fires have broken out again this year in the lower half of
Sumatra island and several areas of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part
of the island of Borneo, since June.