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Hell on earth: forests burn and nature chokes

Source
Sydney Morning Herald - August 23, 1997

Louise Williams, Jakarta – From the air, the great rainforests of Borneo have disappeared under billowing clouds of smoke from hundreds of forest fires raging out of control, forcing planes to abandon their attempts to land.

On the ground, cars and motorbikes are picking their way through the eerie gloom, their headlights blazing, pedestrians are clutching wet towels to their faces and visibility has fallen to as little as 50 metres.

Thousands of kilometres away, the high-rises of Kuala Lumpur are shrouded in thick haze and residents have been advised to wear surgical masks and stop exercising outdoors as the smoke from western Indonesia's burning forests drifts northwards.

Already Indonesian forestry officials estimate that at least 16,000 hectares of one of the world's most important rainforest tracts is on fire in eight provinces on the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Maluku. Indonesian officials have announced a "maximum alert", but have insufficient equipment or expertise to do much more than watch the fires burn. The smoke is fast becoming a diplomatic issue as Singapore and Malaysia choke under the haze, and the destruction of large tracts of rainforest is further damaging the vulnerable ecosystems of Asia's rapidly shrinking "lungs".

Since the early 1980s, when logging companies accelerated their operations in the world's second-largest rainforest reserves in Sumatra and Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, forest fires have become an increasingly serious regional health and pollution issue. Visually, the smoke is causing aviation chaos but more worrying is the impact of particulate pollution, which is being blamed for respiratory illnesses, eye irritations and asthma, especially in children.

In their natural state, tropical forests hold vast quantities of moisture from heavy wet season rains, which support them through the hot, dry months. But relentless logging, as well as nomadic slash and burn cultivation, has already drastically altered the topography of much of Borneo and Sumatra, leaving vast areas denuded, shrinking critical watershed areas and reducing dense, towering forests to kindling.

Dry season burning off to prepare for rice planting, as well as the use of fires to clear land and dispose of wood offcuts, engulf Indonesia and its northern neighbours in a choking haze almost every year.

This year, Indonesia is facing a severe drought and already experts have predicted a long hot dry season due to the El Nino weather pattern. "There are no clouds in the sky but it is almost dark in the middle of the day because of the smoke," said one visitor to Samarinda, on Kalimantan's east coast, who has been unable to travel further inland.

"The planes haven't been able to fly for a week and people are really worried," said Jailani, a Samarinda resident.

He said the city had only two weeks' supply of clean water because logging operations had denuded much of the watershed, which meant wet season rains drained quickly out to sea. Lakes and ponds, previously fed by the slow leeching of the wet season rains through the forests, had now dried up.

"Nowadays if you travel even 500 kilometres upstream you cannot see primary forest. It has all been cut. If we don't get rain within two weeks we will have nothing left to drink."

Forestry experts say the usually moist rainforests have become vulnerable to fire due to a process of "conversion" caused by logging and clearing. Opening up rainforests introduces sunlight to the forest floor, which was previously shaded by the dense tropical canopy. Sunlight encourages potentially flammable grasses and shrubs to invade the tropical forest, and they are easily ignited during burn-offs.

At the same time, clear felling of rainforest areas encourages the rapid growth of grasses which become brittle and dry during the hot months and are highly flammable.

Earlier this week the Indonesian national airline, Garuda, attempted to fly to Pontianak in West Kalimantan but was forced back to Jakarta. All regional airlines later announced cancellations across Kalimantan and parts of Sumatra where towns were no longer visible from the air and the sight range was well below the minimum 2,000 metres.

In 1966, 82 per cent of Indonesia's total land mass was covered by primary forest. By 1982 the area had shrunk to 68 per cent and recent satellite photographs indicate forest cover is now about 55 per cent, including timber plantations. About 64 million hectares, or one-third of Indonesia's total land mass, is covered by commercial logging concessions.

Last year Indonesia became the world's biggest plywood exporter, according to official statistics, and more than 30 per cent of all concessions are controlled by 10 companies with close political links to the Soeharto Government.

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