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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Indonesia Fires Rage Out of Control

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

3/7/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

As I sit in summer like weather in what is suppose to be a Wisconsin

winter, I cannot help but experience an eerie feeling. The Planet's

workings seem to have gone awry. The resurgence of Indonesian fires

as a result of overly extensive and intensive tropical forest

clearing, detailed below, illustrates further Gaia's ecological

imbalance. My sense is that it is not too late to sustain the whole,

but that we must immediately enter the age of aggressive and

widespread preservation, conservation management and restoration to

do so. I am including some excellent brief Indonesian rainforest

background information from the new Global Forest Watch web site at:

http://www.globalforestwatch.org/ .

g.b.

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ITEM #1

Title: Indonesia Fires Rage Out of Control

Source: Associated Press

Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for permission to reprint

Date: March 7, 2000

Byline: ALEX GINTING Associated Press Writer

PEKANBARU, Indonesia (AP) - As many as 500 brush fires raged out of

control on Sumatra on Tuesday, reducing visibility to a few hundred

yards and lowering air quality on the Indonesian island to dangerous

levels.

A dark gray cloud hung low over Pekanbaru, capital of Riau province on

central Sumatra, forcing people to stay indoors and prompting the

government to hand out face masks.

``The level of air pollution in Pekanbaru is dangerous,'' said Teuku

Alamsyah, a local government official. ``It is hazardous and could

cause lung infections and other health problems.''

In 1997, fires across the Indonesian archipelago produced a huge cloud

of smog that paralyzed the region for months and threatened the health

of millions of people over much of Southeast Asia.

This year, smoke and haze has already started blowing across other

countries in the region. In nearby Singapore, the haze whitened the

usually blue sky, and the odor of burning wood was detectable in parts

of the island nation.

Firefighters are not equipped to deal with the problem and have

requested assistance from the military, Alamsyah said.

Many of the fires are in remote locations, and firefighters are unable

to reach them. Firefighters were also hampered by a lack of equipment

- many companies had only a single truck that had to be repeatedly

refilled with water.

Riadi Usman of the Sumatra Environmental Impact Agency said the

government must take immediate action to extinguish the fires.

``There is haze everywhere around the town of Pekanbaru,'' he said,

adding that it was not as bad as three years ago.

Officials at Singapore's Center for Remote Imaging and Processing, who

have been monitoring the fires via satellite imagery, said there were

up to 500 independent fires throughout Sumatra.

``The situation is very alarming at the moment,'' said the center's

director Lim Hock. ``The concern is that the wind will change

direction. Once the southwest monsoon kicks in, it will blow this

way.''

Meteorologists blamed the El Nino weather phenomenon for keeping

season monsoon rains away from the area in 1997. But environmentalists

said farmers and developers set huge tracts of forest land on fire in

an attempt to clear it quickly and cheaply.

The government in Jakarta, then headed by President Suharto, allowed

the fires to burn for months.

ITEM #2

Title: Indonesia's Forests in Brief

Source: Forest Watch Indonesia

http://www.globalforestwatch.org/indonesia/en_index.html

Global Forest Watch, c/o WRI

10 G Street, NE

Washington, DC 20002 USA

+1(202)729-7600 - phone,

+1(202)729-7686 - fax

gfw@wri.org

Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for permission to reprint

Date: March 7, 2000

* Some 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forest is found in

Indonesia.

* According to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), Indonesia has a

total forest area of 911,000 square km2. Of this total, 559,000 km2 (61

percent) are lowland evergreen broadleaf rain forest.

* WCMC estimates that 21 percent of Indonesia's forests are protected.

* Indonesia has lost an estimated 72 percent of its original frontier forest.

Approximately half of current frontier are threatened. About two thirds of

Indonesia's plant species are found within frontier forests.

* According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,

deforestation was occurring at an annual rate of 0.8 percent in the 1980-90

period and increased to 1 annually in the 1990-95 period.

* Indonesia has 60 species of reptiles and amphibians. This is the third highest

national total and 16 percent of the world total. Examples include the comodo

and python.

* Indonesia's 1,519 bird species are one sixth of the world and the fourth

highest national total. Some 28 percent of Indonesia's birds are endemic.

Examples include the bird of paradise and Javanese eagle.

* Indonesia ranks first globally with 121 species of swallowtail butterflies; 44

percent are endemic to Indonesia.

* Indonesia has the largest number of species of palms, approximately 400

species of dipterocarps, and approximately 25,000 species of flora and fauna.

* Some 128 mammal species in Indonesia are under threat.

Sources:

Department of Forestry and Estate Crops (Departemen Kehutanan dan

Perkebunan, 1999)

Dirk Bryant, et. al., The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and

Economies on the Edge (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute,

1997).

World Resources Institute, et. al., World Resources 1998-99 (New

York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Online at:

http.//www.wcmc.org.uk/forest/data/cdrom2/instabs.htm#Table2

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