12/06/01 -- Study Links Logging With Severity of Forest Fires

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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Study Links Logging With Severity of Forest Fires

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12/06/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

Rainforests are irreparably diminished when commercially logged for

the first time. A new study in the journal "Nature" confirms the

casual link between logging and forest fires in tropical rainforests.

Tropical rainforests do not usually burn. "In their natural state,

fuel loads are low and not highly flammable, and the humidity is high

even during drought years." The study presents Indonesia as an

example. Indonesia's rain forests have experienced the effects of

widespread heavy logging and slash-and-burn agriculture, resulting in

weakened ecosystems. The study confirms that logging waste and dense

undergrowth of fast-growing pioneer species provide large amounts of

fuel that feed the rampant spread of forest fires. Forest fires in

Indonesia in 1998 burned 12 million acres of land and forest, caused

USD$ 9billion in damaged, and made Indonesia one of the highest

global emitters of carbon. Less than one million burned acres were

in protected, and presumably relatively more pristine, forests. The

authors conclude that "unless land-use policies are changed to

control logging and to introduce reduced-impact logging techniques,

recurrent fires will lead to a complete loss of Borneo's lowland rain

forests." The myth that commercially scaled "Sustainable Forest

Management" is a desirable and environmentally sustainable use of the

World's remaining primary forests is a dangerous lie that threatens

the biological fabric of the Earth.

g.b.

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Title: Study Links Logging With Severity of Forest Fires

Date: December 3, 2001

Byline: Hillary Mayell

Researchers have confirmed a long-suspected link between logging and

the devastation of forest fires in tropical rain forests.

Fires that ripped through East Kalimantan, Indonesia, in 1998 burned

more than 12 million acres (5 million hectares) of land and forest.

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), based in

Bogor, Indonesia, estimated that the economic loss to Indonesia

exceeded U.S. $9 billion and that carbon emissions were high enough

to make the country one of the largest polluters in the world.

Using remote sensing, satellite imagery, and ground and aerial

surveys, a team of German and Indonesian researchers found that the

bulk of the roughly 12 million acres (5 million hectares) consumed by

fire occurred in timber concessions, plantations, and on land

converted to agricultural use and then left fallow.

Fire damage was by far the worst in areas that had been recently

logged.

Almost two-thirds of the pulp wood plantations in East Kalimantan

were destroyed by the fires.

Less than one million acres (400,000 hectares) were in protected, and

presumably pristine, forests.

Forests Under Siege

Tropical rain forests don't usually burn. In their natural state,

fuel loads are low and not highly flammable, and the humidity is high

even during drought years.

But Indonesia's rain forests have experienced the effects of heavy

logging and slash-and-burn agriculture, resulting in weakened

ecosystems.

Indonesia's forests burned following droughts in 1982-83, 1987, 1991,

and 1994.

The drought that followed the 1997-98 El Nio was particularly harsh,

said Florian Siegert, a professor at Ludwig Maximilians University in

Munich, Germany. The extent of fire damage that occurred in early

spring of 1998 was unprecedented, he said.

Siegert is the lead author on the study, which was published in the

November 22 issue of the journal Nature.

The study confirms earlier suspicions that logging waste and dense

undergrowth of fast-growing pioneer species provide large amounts of

fuel that feeds the rampant spread of forest fires.

Pressure on Indonesia's rain forests has been building for 30 years.

Government relocation programs encouraged people to move from densely

populated regions to less populated islands such as Borneo, where

East Kalimantan is located. The increased population pressure has led

to uncontrolled conversion of forest to agricultural use, which is

done through slash-and-burn techniques.

Non-indigenous islanders have also used fire for hunting, said

Siegert.

For example, "turtles live during the day usually in mud holes, where

they are difficult to find," he said. "Fire forces them to come out,

and then they can be easily collected."

Huge swaths of forest have also been cleared to make way for pulp

wood and palm oil plantations. Much of the forest land that has been

cleared is anchored in peat, which is a rich source of fuel for

fires.

From 1996 to 1997 alone, nearly 2.5 million acres (one million

hectares) of peat land was drained for a rice-growing project and

then set on fire to clear the land, said Siegert. Peat fires set by

plantation companies and transmigrants contributed enormously to the

acrid cloud of smoke that hung over Indonesia and other parts of

Southeast Asia in 1997, garnering international attention.

Fires are also used as a "weapon" in land disputes between the

plantation companies and local people who consider the land to be

theirs. And then there's logging. Indonesia is one of the largest

suppliers of tropical timber in the world. According to the World

Bank, about 70 percent of the timber is felled illegally.

The bank predicts that if current deforestation trends continue,

lowland rain forests will become extinct in Sumatra by 2005, and in

Kalimantan soon after 2010.

CIFOR has estimated that the current level of deforestation might be

as high as 4.3 million acres (1.7 million hectares) a year.

Toward Prevention Siegert said data acquired from the study was used

to produce a "fire-risk" map showing the most vulnerable areas of

forest, which can help policy makers establish fire-prevention

policies and determine where to allocate fire-fighting equipment.

Conservation groups have long been clamoring for a change in

government policies regarding land conversion and logging in the

tropical rain forests.

At a regional ministerial-level conference on forest law enforcement

held in September in Bali, Indonesia signed on to an agreement to

step up enforcement against illegal logging. But the situation is

urgent, and conservationists are justifiably worried.

"Unless land-use policies are changed to control logging and to

introduce reduced-impact logging techniques, recurrent fires will

lead to a complete loss of Borneo's lowland rain forests," the

authors warn.

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