Timber Tycoon Sees Land Clearing as Service to Government
10/3/97
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Headline: Timber Tycoon Sees Land Clearing as Service to Government
Source: The Straits Times
Date: 10/3/97
Author: Derwin Pereira in Jakarta
**Satellite pictures of the Indonesian fires can be viewed
at the Crisp web site: http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg .
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The Straits Times. The Big Haze. Wed. Oct 03 97. Pg 48.
INDONESIA'S best-known timber magnate argued on
Wednesday that forestry and plantation firms were
doing the country a service by clearing the land of
shrubbery, but conceded that burnings had gotten
out of hand in some areas and resulted in massive
haze-causing fires.
Timber baron Muhammad "Bob" Hasan, a close
ally and regular golfing partner of President Suharto,
said that if shrub lands were not cleared by firms,
these areas would light up like tinderboxes during
the hot and dry season.
"There are 30 million ha of land out there for conversion.
These are of no economic value and pose a fire hazard,"
he told The Straits Times.
The government's aim, he added, had always been to
convert such land for use by plantations and into
transmigration areas.
Firms had so far cleared only about six million ha of
such land across the country, he said, adding that if
the balance of 24 million ha was not cleared for
conversion, "imagine the damage it could do to the
environment once natural fires break out."
Mr Hasan, who is the chairman of the Indonesian Forestry
Society, acknowledged that the fires currently raging in
Sumatra and Kalimantan were the result of some
"unprofessional companies" and small farmers who
practised traditional slash-and-burn methods of land
clearing.
The problem was being added to and had become more
complicated because of the drought-inducing El Ni=F1o
phenomenon.
"Given that it is the dry season and because of El Ni=F1o,
we have to be extra careful in clearing land by controlled
burning," he said.
Up to 100,000 ha out of the 143 million ha of forest area
in the country had been destroyed so far, he said. Some
government officials believed the figure could be as high
as 300,000 ha while environmentalists put it closer to
800,000 ha.
Mr Hasan said Dutch and German expertise were now
being used to prevent a recurrence of fires breaking out
in Indonesia's largest provinces.
The established procedure for land clearing by fire was
to have a "corridor space" of 30 m between the plot being
burnt and any adjoining area.
"That way, the first will not spread to other areas," he
said. "Unfortunately, some of the companies might not
have followed this rule."
He declined to name these companies but claimed that
Malaysian and Singaporean firms in joint ventures with
indonesian businesses were involved.
Mr Hasan said that none of his firms practised land
clearing by fire or was responsible for the worsening
haze enveloping the region.
"Some people are making such allegations because they
see me as being near the leadership," he said, adding
that none of his companies were on the government's
"hit list" of 176 firms identified as having cleared land
by burning.
"We need the raw materials. So why should we burn
them?" We are not that stupid," he said.
Environment Ministry officials here said larger firms were
responsible for 80 per cent of the fires in the country.
The remaining 20 per cent were caused by small-scale
farmers.
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Meanwhile, at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
In another report, on the same page, Deputy Prime Minister
Anwar Ibrahim said in Kuala Lumpur that the companies
responsible for starting fires to clear the land were mostly
American, Canadian and French firms, and not Malaysian
ones.
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