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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Hell on
Earth: The Rainforests of Borneo Are Burning
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
8/27/97
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by EE
What
goes around comes around, as the heavily impacted rainforests of
Borneo
are now afire. Asia's rapidly
diminishing rainforests have
taken
another hit as forest fires rage out of control in Indonesian
Borneo,
causing large sections of both Indonesia and Malaysia to be
covered
with thick blankets of smoke. After two
decades of highly
intensive
forest clearing (In 1966, 82% of Indonesia was covered by
primary
forest, now it is 55%), remaining forests are fragmented and
the
micro-climate has changed enough to tip the balance towards
greater
probability of cataclysmic fires. Fire
is merely finishing
the
ecosystem destruction that out of control industrial logging
started. As Asian style industrial logging crests in
Papua New
Guinea,
and enters the last great forest wildernesses in Brazil,
Africa
and now Siberia, we can expect more of the same. The World
needs
its remaining large and wild forest ecosystems, and by the time
the
logs are carted away and what remains is burning, it is too late.
g.b.
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Title: Hell on earth: forests burn and nature
chokes
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Status: Copyright, contact source for permission to
reprint
Date: August 23, 1997
Byline: Louise Williams
The
burning rainforests of Borneo are only the latest chapter in the
tragic
history of wholesale destruction in South-East Asia's "lungs'.
Herald
Correspondent LOUISE WILLIAMS reports from Jakarta.
FROM
the air, the great rainforests of Borneo have disappeared under
billowing
clouds of smoke from hundreds of forest fires raging out of
control,
forcing planes to abandon their attempts to land.
On the ground,
cars and motorbikes are picking their way through the
eerie
gloom, their headlights blazing, pedestrians are clutching wet
towels
to their faces and visibility has fallen to as little as 50
metres.
Thousands
of kilometres away, the high-rises of Kuala Lumpur are
shrouded
in thick haze and residents have been advised to wear
surgical
masks and stop exercising outdoors as the smoke from western
Indonesia's
burning forests drifts northwards.
Already
Indonesian forestry officials estimate that at least 16,000
hectares
of one of the world's most important rainforest tracts is on
fire in
eight provinces on the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi
and
Maluku. Indonesian officials have announced a "maximum alert", but
have
insufficient equipment or expertise to do much more than watch
the
fires burn. The smoke is fast becoming a diplomatic issue as
Singapore
and Malaysia choke under the haze, and the destruction of
large
tracts of rainforest is further damaging the vulnerable
ecosystems
of Asia's rapidly shrinking "lungs".
Since
the early 1980s, when logging companies accelerated their
operations
in the world's second-largest rainforest reserves in
Sumatra
and Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, forest fires have
become
an increasingly serious regional health and pollution issue.
Visually,
the smoke is causing aviation chaos but more worrying is the
impact
of particulate pollution, which is being blamed for respiratory
illnesses,
eye irritations and asthma, especially in children.
In
their natural state, tropical forests hold vast quantities of
moisture
from heavy wet season rains, which support them through
the
hot, dry months. But relentless logging, as well as nomadic slash
and
burn cultivation, has already drastically altered the topography
of much
of Borneo and Sumatra, leaving vast areas denuded, shrinking
critical
watershed areas and reducing dense, towering forests to
kindling.
Dry
season burning off to prepare for rice planting, as well as the
use of
fires to clear land and dispose of wood offcuts, engulf
Indonesia
and its northern neighbours in a choking haze almost every
year.
This
year, Indonesia is facing a severe drought and already experts
have
predicted a long hot dry season due to the El Nino weather
pattern.
"There are no clouds in the sky but it is almost dark in the
middle
of the day because of the smoke," said one visitor to
Samarinda,
on Kalimantan's east coast, who has been unable to travel
further
inland.
"The
planes haven't been able to fly for a week and people are really
worried,"
said Jailani, a Samarinda resident.
He said
the city had only two weeks' supply of clean water because
logging
operations had denuded much of the watershed, which meant wet
season
rains drained quickly out to sea. Lakes and ponds, previously
fed by
the slow leeching of the wet season rains through the forests,
had now
dried up.
"Nowadays
if you travel even 500 kilometres upstream you cannot see
primary
forest. It has all been cut. If we don't get rain within two
weeks
we will have nothing left to drink."
Forestry
experts say the usually moist rainforests have become
vulnerable
to fire due to a process of "conversion" caused by
logging
and clearing. Opening up rainforests introduces sunlight to
the
forest floor, which was previously shaded by the dense tropical
canopy.
Sunlight encourages potentially flammable grasses and shrubs
to
invade the tropical forest, and they are easily ignited during
burn-offs.
At the
same time, clear felling of rainforest areas encourages the
rapid
growth of grasses which become brittle and dry during the hot
months
and are highly flammable.
Earlier
this week the Indonesian national airline, Garuda, attempted
to fly
to Pontianak in West Kalimantan but was forced back to Jakarta.
All
regional airlines later announced cancellations across Kalimantan
and
parts of Sumatra where towns were no longer visible from the air
and the
sight range was well below the minimum 2,000 metres.
In
1966, 82 per cent of Indonesia's total land mass was covered by
primary
forest. By 1982 the area had shrunk to 68 per cent and recent
satellite
photographs indicate forest cover is now about 55 per cent,
including
timber plantations. About 64 million hectares, or one-third
of
Indonesia's total land mass, is covered by commercial logging
concessions.
Last
year Indonesia became the world's biggest plywood exporter,
according
to official statistics, and more than 30 per cent of
all
concessions are controlled by 10 companies with close political
links
to the Soeharto Government.
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