Recurrent peat and forest fires in Indonesia release
huge amounts of carbon to the atmosphere and threaten human health and regional
economies. A group of European and Indonesian scientists from The Universities of Nottingham
and Leicester, UK, University of Munich, Germany, University of Helsinki, Finland
and University of Palangka Raya, Indonesia is calling for politicians and international
aid donors to save the peat swamp forests of Indonesia and help prevent huge
emissions of carbon that could be contributing to global warming.
More than 10 years of scientific research carried out by Darwin Initiative and European Union funded research projects in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia has provided a detailed benchmark against which to measure the impact of major forest and peatland fires that have been occurring frequently since 1997. This retrospective study evaluated the impact of the 1997/1998 El Niño-driven fire disaster, during which forest and peatland fires destroyed huge areas of peat swamp rainforest and peatland drained for agriculture in Southeast Asia.
It was the biggest fire catastrophe ever seen in the region, leaving a 3,000 x 5,000km noxious, yellow cloud of noxious ‘haze’ over several countries for several months, affecting human health and economies in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand. The economic damage resulting from the smoke alone was estimated to exceed $2 billion, closing airports, schools and offices and disrupting trade. Subsequently, fires occurred in the same locations in Kalimantan and Sumatra in 2002 and reached serious proportions once more until they were extinguished at the onset of the rainy season. An update of this serious situation is being published in a feature article in Nature on 10th November 2004.
These fires are helping to convert tropical peatlands from carbon stores to carbon sinks and released an amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere in only a few months in 1997 equivalent to 16-40% of that emitted globally from consumption of fossil fuels in one year. The process continues every year in Indonesia and Malaysia when the dry season comes round again. It is highly likely that tropical peatland fires and peatlands converted to agriculture are contributing to the accelerating increase of carbon dioxide detected in the atmosphere since 1998 and which has speeded up further since 2002.
Suwido Limin of the Centre for International Cooperation in Management of Tropical Peatland (CIMTROP) at the University of Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia wrote a few weeks ago: “During October 2004, the atmosphere in and surrounding Palangka Raya has been covered by thick smoke. Since 18 October 2004, the Air Pollution Index has indicated that air quality has reached a dangerous level. Since Tuesday 19 Oct 2004 the visibility has been only about 400 - 500 m at midday and 100 - 200 m in the morning. Today (Thursday 21 Oct 2004) it is worse than yesterday. Since Tuesday some flights from and/or to Jakarta – Palangka Raya have been cancelled. The Local Government has decided to declare a holiday for students (nursery and elementary school) since yesterday.”
The Indonesian Government is virtually powerless to act and deal with this emergency, mainly because of a lack of financial and human resources to control the situation. Burning of vegetation and peat has long been practiced in the peatland areas of Indonesia as the principal tool in clearing land for agriculture and human settlement. In recent years, inappropriate development projects (e.g. the Mega Rice Project), plantations of oil palm and illegal logging have all added to the increased incidence and severity of fires, especially in Kalimantan and Sumatra (see RS images of ‘hot spots’ and ‘haze’).
In 2002 Suwido Limin organised several volunteer groups of local people to combat some of the more serious fire incidents, especially those that threatened the city of Palangka Raya, the provincial capital of Central Kalimantan and international research facilities in the upper catchment of the Sebangau River. These were the only fire-fighting groups to have success because they entered the peat swamp wilderness to find the locations of fire outbreaks and developed techniques to extinguish the fires, especially to obtain water in sufficient quantity to be effective.
On Friday 15, October 2004 Suwido Limin sent a letter to the Governor and Parliament of Central Kalimantan with an appeal, suggesting that the provincial Government and local communities anticipate the increase in fire and smoke by taking real actions. He asked that an emergency budget be allocated for fire suppression. Suwido intends to organize 7 fire-fighting groups (TSA) in Palangka Raya Municipality if he can raise sufficient financial support from local government, donor agencies and other organizations to be ready to deal with peatland fires when they break out again. This will involve recruiting around 150 people who need to be maintained in the field for days at a time. They have to be fed, watered, transported and paid a small remuneration for leaving their own homes and livelihoods. The Governor of Central Kalimantan is supporting an appeal to raise 90.000€ (110,000$) to train local people to undertake fire prevention and suppression activities so they are more prepared to deal with fires when they start again.
So far Suwido has been promised 5.000€ from the Global Peatland Initiative and 10.000€ from IUCN in The Netherlands. This is not enough so a major purpose of this meeting today is to invite financial contributions from donors in the UK and around the world. The work is unpleasant and arduous; living and working in a tropical peat swamp is no fun and the teams have to carry all of the equipment on their backs and, when they reach their destination, they have to cut down trees to make fire breaks and bore wells deep into the ground to find water to use for fire control. Suwido organised one Fire Patrol Unit to suppress fire in the upstream part of the Sebangau River a few weeks ago, even though he does not have any money for this purpose. He calls upon donor agencies and individuals to support his actions to suppress forest and peatland fires in Central Kalimantan.
For further information contact Ir. Suwido Limin: suwido@palangkaraya.wasantara.net.id