Jakarta – The Indonesian government needs to act soon to stop forest fires spiralling out of control in a repeat of the widespread disaster in 1997, the country's leading environmental watchdog WALHI warned Wednesday.
"We can now predict that widespread forest fires will break out again this year and may even be worse than in the past," said Longgena Ginting, coordinator of WALHI's forest advocacy program.
Despite the terrible fires which destroyed some 10 million hectares of forests in 1997 and early 1998, the government had made no moves to stop it happening again, he said.
"There does not seem to be any anticipation or efforts to prevent the fires, no systematic effort is apparent," Ginting said, adding visits to fire-prone areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan had shown no changes in practice or policy.
A study of hotspots in the two islands, obtained from satellite imaging, showed they were spreading fast, with the number in Sumatra rising from 110 on Monday to more than 314 the next day. In Kalimantan the hotspots had spread from 80 to 300 by Tuesday. "From the trend of the past days, we can see that the fires are spreading fast and could spread as badly as two years ago," he said.
The dry season had begun to hit several regions in Kalimantan, and despite a government ban on slash and burn land clearing, the practice continued, with even large plantation firms joining in, he said.
WALHI "demands the unconditional halt to forest conversion ... and demands that the forestry ministry prioritize forest protection rather than monetary economic interests that ignore the sustainability of Indonesia's natural forests."
Government zoning laws at provincial level allocated up to 30 percent of a province's forests for conversion into plantations to boost exports amid the economic crisis, he said.
"One of the main culprits [for the fires] is land conversion ... our data shows that in the past as well as now, the largest fires can be found in large concessions," he said.
A lack of staff or legal sanctions meant the ban on land clearing by fire was unenforced, he said, while large companies were trying to keep down costs by clearing land through the cheapest and fastest method – fire.
A forestry official in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, contacted by AFP agreed nothing had changed and said he could only step up patrols. "We are restrained by lack of [fire fighting] equipment and funds," the official said.
Officials said smoke from forest and shrub fires on Sumatra and Borneo had already hit hazardous levels affecting air traffic and people's health.
Fires in Sumatra and Borneo covered much of the region with a choking haze for months in 1997 and to a lesser extent in 1998. In 1997 more than 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of forest and shrubs were destroyed in Kalimantan and Sumatra, according to government figures. But WALHI claims more than 10 million hectares of forests alone were ravaged.