Haze Again Blankets Southeast Asia

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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8/9/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

Many experts expect forest fires in Indonesia this year to be bigger

than that in 1997, which destroyed at least 5 million hectares of forest

with an economic loss of about 4 billion U.S. dollars. The woefully

inadequate response to the crisis is made apparent by President

Habibie's placing blame on El Nino as the primary cause of these

recurrent blazes, rather than accepting responsibility and addressing

the effects of decades of inappropriate tropical land management.

Extensive and intensive industrial management and clearing of primary

tropical rainforests have made conditions ripe for eventual ecological

Armageddon. Continuing economic, political and social turmoil in

Indonesia is emblematic of the same malady-- failure to pursue an

appropriate and non-Western development model for sustainability under

tropical conditions. An Indonesian environmental group is calling for

Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei to take Indonesia to court for this

year's smoke cloud.

g.b.

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ITEM #1

Title: Haze Blankets Southeast Asia

Source: Associated Press

Date: August 4, 1999

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Out-of-control forest fires on Sumatra

island spewed out a thick haze Wednesday over the South Pacific

nation, slowing air and sea traffic while pushing air pollution to

dangerous levels.

Smoke from the dry-season fires choked shipping traffic through the

busy Straight of Malacca, which separates Sumatra from Singapore and

Malaysia.

Low visibility caused some domestic flights to be diverted, said local

transportation department chief Ismanu, who goes by only one name.

The island's Riau province, which has been covered in clouds of smoke

for several months, declared a state of emergency on Wednesday.

Visibility in the provincial capital of Pekanbaru was less than 200

yards, and health officials warned people to stay indoors because of

dangerous pollution levels. Only residents wearing face masks ventured

into the city's otherwise deserted and blackened streets.

Malaysia's official news agency, Bernama, reported that Malaysia,

Singapore and Brunei had formally urged Indonesia to check the

spreading fires and avert a regional crisis.

In 1997, blazes on Borneo and Sumatra swept out control, and a huge

smoke cloud paralyzed the region for several weeks.

Environmentalists accuse farmers and developers of setting huge tracts

of forest land on fire during the dry season.

One Indonesian environmental group, Walhi, warned Wednesday that this

year's fires could dwarf the ``tragedy'' of 1997. The group said at

least 441 fires were now burning on Sumatra and Borneo.

ITEM #2

Title: Indonesian President Warns of Danger of Forest Fires

Source: Xinhua

Date: August 5, 1999

JAKARTA, August 5 (Xinhua)-- Indonesian president B.J. Habibie

Thursday warned the public of the danger of forest fires resulting

from the El Nino weather phenomenon which is now occurring according

to shorter cycles and accompanied by prolonged drought.

In the past, El Nino was happening once every 30 or 50 years but now

it is doing so at a higher frequency, Habibie said in Samarinda,

capital of East Kalimantan province, Antara news Agency reported.

Habibie said that at least 99 percent of forest fires occurring in

Indonesia were man-made with 33 percent of them caused specifically by

burning cigarettes.

He urged the people to learn a lesson from these facts and act more

responsibly to prevent forest fires.

Reports said smoke from forest and plantation fires has begun to

darken the skies over some parts of Riau in Sumatra and Kalimantan

islands in Indonesia since the dry season began in July.

In Pekanbaru, provincial capital of Riau province, smog became thicker

Wednesday, causing visibility in the city to drop to only 100 to 200

meters.

Some experts said this year's forest fires may be bigger than that in

1997 when forest fires raged in many parts of the islands of Sumatra

and Kalimantan.

The 1997 fires destroyed about 5 million hectares of forest in the

country with an economic loss of about 4 billion U.S. dollars.

East Kalimantan Governor Suwarna Adulfatah said the weather phenomena

in 1997-98 had caused 520,000 forest fires and 124,000 hectares of

crop failures.

In addition, in 1999, there were 48,250 families in East Kalimantan

still living under the poverty line, he said.

According another report, the Japan International Cooperation Agency

has sent a team to help put out the forest fires raging in Riau.

ITEM #3

Title: Experts Call For Indonesia To Face Court Over Smog

Source: Reuters

Date: August 7, 1999

Byline: Claudia Gazzini

JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Sumatra residents wore masks to keep

out a choking smog from forest fires Friday, as environmental monitors

called for Indonesia to face an international court over what is

becoming an annual disaster.

An official at an Indonesian environmental watchdog called on

Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei to take Indonesia to court for this

year's smoke cloud, which has blanketed much of Southeast Asia in a

scene reminiscent of 1997's tragedy.

Severe fires that year, mainly lit by farmers and logging companies

clearing land, caused a choking smog that smothered Indonesia's

neighbors, damaging tourism and sending visibility plunging.

Most of the smoke came from Sumatra and Indonesia's Borneo provinces.

In Brunei, on Borneo's northwest coast, organizers fear the smog will

spoil the Southeast Asian games, which start in the oil-rich sultanate

Saturday.

Smog has blanketed Brunei for several days this week, concerning teams

from the 10 competing nations but by Friday the sky was relatively

clear.

Forestry experts said this year's fires in the Indonesian part of

Borneo were spreading rapidly and the situation there could soon be

worse than in Sumatra. Fires were also reported in Sarawak, on the

Malaysian part of Borneo.

``Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei have to think about taking Indonesia

to the International Court of Justice for the lack in its political

awareness,'' said Longgena Ginting, co-ordinator for forest advocacy

at the independent Walhi watchdog.

He accused Jakarta of doing nothing to curb the fires and condemned

its policy of clearing forest land for plantations.

``The government must declare that land clearing has to stop.''

Friday, light rains slowed the spread of the fires in Sumatra. But

experts said that rain was unlikely to put the fires out because the

temperature of the flames was too high, exceeding 1,832 degrees

Fahrenheit in some areas.

Satellite images showed less than 200 hotspots in Sumatra -- each

representing an area of fire. Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of

Borneo, was covered in cloud which hindered satellite imagery, but

environmental watchdogs said they believed the fires were spreading

rapidly, aided by the dry season there.

In the most badly affected area, Sumatra's Riau province, many

residents wore masks. In Minas town, about 570 miles northwest of

Jakarta, residents said the smog enveloped most parts of the town till

noon.

``Last week the smog would go away by around nine but for the past few

days it stays on the ground until midday,'' one government official

told Reuters by telephone.

He added the situation was reminiscent of 1997's fire disaster.

Prevailing winds have blown the smoke from Riau and surrounding areas

east to nearby Singapore and peninsular Malaysia.

Shipping sources in Singapore and Malaysia said smog was a major

potential problem. Visibility could be reduced to a only a few hundred

meters, similar to 1997's levels.

``In a narrow strait, especially the Malacca Strait, it can be a

problem,'' a maritime expert in Malaysia said.

If the smog becomes thick again, shipping authorities would not be

able to do much more than issue warnings to ships navigating the

strait, the expert said.

In Malaysia, opposition politicians decried a government decision not

to release details of the Air Pollution Index, used to measure air

quality.

Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding has shrugged off the criticism and

accused foreign news organizations of using the data to scare away

tourists.

Experts say that although a lot of changes have been made on paper

from the great fires of 1997 and 1998, implementation on the grounds

remains weak. A lot of half-burned vegetation is providing easy fuel

as the dry season goes on.

Experts have forecast the fires could go on till October, when the dry

season is due to end, and have accused the government of President

B.J. Habibie of being preoccupied with his bid for a second term as

president.

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