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Forest Fires and Smoke Haze in Southeast AsiaWhat are the Sustainable Pathways for the Future?by Tim Frodsham, Peter Newman and Harry Harsono Amir
Causes Potential Solutions Forestry and the ESD Policy Process Bibliography Comments on the Readings Additional Reading Study Questions IntroductionThis study examines the effects and causes of what was billed morbidly by the world's media as Asia's worst environmental disaster.It looks at the socio-economic and environmental impacts and the ways in which such human-made catastrophic events could be averted, invoking sets of strategies aimed at sustainable solutions that are workable. It also asks the reader to consider the discussion questions, which are designed to stimulate constructive dialogue concerning the issues at hand. Between late July and October 1997, over 1.7 million hectares (17 000 km2) of Indonesian tropical forest was estimated to have gone up in smoke. Massive forest fires in the Sumatran provinces of Jambi, Riau and elsewhere in Indonesia caused an enormous and debilitating smoke haze that hung over the Southeast Asian region, drifting as far as an area between Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, Manila and Irian Jaya. The smoke even reached Darwin and India, though only briefly. Not all the destruction occurred in Indonesia; around the same time, fires of lesser proportion were also reported to exist in the East Malaysian province of Sarawak, where large areas of land have continued to be logged and burned over recent years. Fanned by a drought thought to be caused by the El Niño effect's climatic disturbance that year, which had delayed the wet season rains by up to several months, the forest fires were not extinguished at the time normally expected. Dried peat bogs in the normally waterlogged lower lying areas also ignited, and smouldered unabated alongside the burning trees. The severe drought also meant difficulty in procuring water to combat the fires in the worst hit areas. Socio-economicOnly very few people were reported to have died from respiratory problems as a result of the fires, but the true long term health effects of the millions of people living in the areas worst affected will not be ascertained for many years to come. Health experts stated that breathing the air in the worst affected areas of the smoke haze was equivalent to smoking up to 80 cigarettes a day. Irrespective of any differing concerns between the ASEAN countries of what was an 'acceptable' level of exposure, the levels of particulates and pollutants (mainly carbon, nitrogen and sulphur dioxides) from the haze in worst affected areas such as Pontianak, in West Kalimantan, had reached levels of 1890 µg/m3; frighteningly distant from the United Nation's World Health Organisation's guideline that atmospheric concentrations of suspended particulate matter should not exceed 90 µg/m3 (Potter 1997). A health risk analysis could be done on these data, similar to those done on air pollution. Serious transport accidents appeared to have been more than co-incidental during the smog period: a Garuda Airbus collided into a mountainside on the approach to Medan in Sumatra, killing all 256 passengers on board. Shortly afterwards airports were closed at Medan and at other terminals in the country. Meanwhile, in the unclear straits of Malacca, a small Indian cargo vessel hit a large supertanker, killing 20 of the former ship's crew. Many traffic accidents were exacerbated by the haze. In Indonesia's eastern most province of Irian Jaya, severe drought had caused staple food crops to fail in the highlands, resulting in an estimated minimum of five hundred deaths from mass starvation. The death toll was reported to rise as smoke haze from extensive fires also burning in this mountainous province hampered visibility and access by aeroplanes directed at providing emergency food relief. A regional news report alleged some 90,000 people were reported to be facing imminent starvation from the continuing famine in mid-November, when the first wet season rains had not fallen, and the fires and associated smoke haze continued. The economic implications were immediate and are expected to be long term. Tourism in the entire Southeast Asian region dropped off considerably in combination with the stock market decline. Indeed, it is possible to see a link between the loss of economic confidence and the smoke haze issue. Many previous hotels and holiday bookings were cancelled in Malaysia and Indonesia especially. As the haze endured in Malaysia, increased reports of haze-related depression and even suicide began to appear in the midst of the continued grey-black lightness and dark normally associated with the extreme winter period in the higher latitudes. The compounded impact of all these incidents forced the Indonesian Government to declare a national disaster, and open its doors to international assistance. The co-incidence of Indonesia appealing to the global community for help on their currency crisis and their ecological crisis is of considerable interest to those examining the issues of sustainability; the environmental and the economic are linked inextricably. EnvironmentalNot suprisingly the impact on wildlife was catastrophic. Potter (1997) reported that a fire in the Kutai National Park (East Kalimantan) led to the death of 30 female orangutans. Villagers were said to have chainsawed to death the adults and captured the infants for sale or adoption as pets. Great areas of forest were destroyed in other National parks causing other large mammal species to flee from their destroyed habitat, including a herd of some 1800 elephants. Numbers of deer were also seen making themselves easy prey to hunters. Tigers driven from the forest by the fires, attacked and killed two people in Sumatra. Species extinction rates are difficult for tropical ecologists to calculate at any time, but are impossible to estimate in the aftermath of the inferno. The majority of extinctions would have occurred to organisms whose existence is critical to the functioning of tropical ecosystems: the large number of invertebrates in lower trophic levels of the food chain. Also phenomenal was the massive increase in CO2 emissions (in tonnes of carbon per km2) from the vast area of forest that was incinerated. CausesFrom most of the literature and commentary on the issue, it appears that the majority of the burning was done by people contracted to large Indonesian forest plantation and palm oil estates, in areas designated for clearing. The next major contributors were logging companies who clear land for timber extraction. Thirdly, and least culpable of all were the small scale shifting cultivators, who seasonally burn small plots for their subsistence.Media reports were made by the large timber and rubber cartels, who claimed that the fires were lit by itinerant shifting cultivators from villages. The facts suggest that the vast majority of the fires were lit by those logging and plantation estate workers routinely contracted by the cartels. High resolution satellite imagery from Singapore University's Remote Sensing Institute (CRISP), showed many of the fires in the vicinity of large corporate timber concessions and plantation estates. There remains some confusion however, as dispossessed farmers whose land had been taken without compensation by the big plantation and timber barons, also lit fires inside existing estates in angry retribution. Other fires were lit to make way for the Indonesian government's agricultural projects in Kalimantan for rice cultivation by transmigrants from other overcrowded islands in the archipelago, the majority from Java. This necessitated the clearing and burning of forested land. The majority of fires were thus part of a normal process, but because of the very dry conditions it was easy to remove unwanted bio-mass by burning. Moreover it was so easy for such burning to escape into surrounding areas. The reality is that burning of the land is the only means presently seen to be acceptable by land managers (large and small) to clear land. ASEAN countries such as Malaysia and Singapore were eventually powerful in their denouncement of the Indonesian Government's handling of the issue. However, in the early stages of the issue, before the general public became incensed, they were patient with Indonesia when questioned by the media about that country's slow response to the disaster. This may have been cultural reticence to criticise close neighbours or it may have been that Malaysian and Singaporean business interests were also vested in the large estates that suffered ignition. Potential SolutionsCausative factors and potential solutions for the problems suffered may be classified under the four different categories: socio-economic, physical, biological and climatic. Each will be discussed in turn.Socio-economicLack of education of local people and officials results in mis-informed views of the true extent and nature of the fire and smoke haze problem. Improved education about the issues combined with more media coverage would result in more informed assessment and facilitate positive local action. Burning off was the most economically efficient means of land clearing to expand plantation output and maintain swidden cultivation. Alternatives to this need to be examined, including ways of making existing land more sustainably productive, including, inter-cropping and staggering of more diverse yields as well as using more drought tolerant plants. Indigenous slash/mulch systems [from the New Guinean and Latin American Tropics] may provide important lessons for improving the sustainability and productivity of agro-ecosystems in tropical countries (Thurston 1997). For swidden farmers it is possible to create a transition economy for them which does not involve burning the land; this agroforestry technique called Talun, is demonstrated in a few places and is important as a means of social integration as well as for land management where forest is diminishing. Large amounts of cleared forest are wastefully left unlogged even though they contain potentially valuable export timber and woodchip material. Unextracted, felled timber is too great a potentially combustible fuel for fire in pre-wet season burn-offs. In response, the use of portable sawmills used under controlled environmental and silvicultural guidelines (Henderson, 1994) could allow timber cutters to log far more selectively and sensitively, maintaining forest bio-diversity and lowering potential fire fuel. Material not suitable for timber or woodchipping can be mulched and left on the soil to prevent soil erosion. The areas being used for forestry and agriculture are in many cases not suitable; peat drying out becomes an inevitable source of fire, or soils are inadequate for production of cash crops. A new landuse plan for Indonesia could enable some of the potential fires to be prevented and greater bio-diversity preserved. Lack of incentives for plantation managers to move towards sustainable land practices is of concern in achieving sustainability. As the issue is an international one, it is possible to involve international and local consumers in the process of changing practices of production. An 'eco-labelling' approach could establish a set of sustainability criteria for plantations; if plantations meet these they can label their products with an 'eco-label'. The process could be managed by the Indonesian Government with the assistance of local and international consumer organisations. When very dry conditions occur and burning is banned, it may be necessary to increase enforcement. Moreover, increased enforcement of logging and burning restrictions from independent agencies may also be required, using international assistance from satellite photography to monitor compliance. Forest management is highly centralised in Indonesia and needs to be more sensitised to local responsibility for forest resources. An Institute for Forest Fire Management could be established from a plantation levy to research the issue further. PhysicalDifficulty controlling the extent of fires due to the extreme range over large land areas and lack of forward knowledge in fire detection, indicates a more sophisticated resource input is required. The need for better intelligence to detect fires from aerial observation and satellite imaging is also a necessity in monitoring compliance for clearing and burning restrictions over very large areas. Volunteer fire fighting groups could be established as in rural areas of Australia. BiologicalLack of biodiversity from previously cleared forest which was overcut and under-planted, has resulted in excessive overgrowth of the highly flammable Imperata cyclindrica or Alang-alang grass, and more flammable secondary types of regrowth. This increases potential fuel over successive dry seasons. Greater replanting of more diverse species could help to restore forest to previous moisture levels. More fire breaks are necessary between forested and planted land. From the vast plethora of literature on alley cropping, there is great potential for the successful integration of scientifically tested techniques into the rubber and palm oil plantation industry in Indonesia. The literature has also shown that diversity of productive plant species in agro-ecosystems is the key to sustainable production. Hence there is an imperative for adoption of intercropping to further diversify production and yields. ClimaticThe El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) resulted in a very delayed, mild wet season in maritime Southeast Asia, arriving in late November instead of September. The ENSO was also thought to have influenced the existence of an inversion layer and very low wind speeds. Despite some warnings, the models for tropical regions are inadequate and unreliable. There are also considerable variations in local climates in Indonesia which are not well documented, monitored or modelled. This resulted in perfect conditions for the continuance of smoke haze. Greater computer modelling and studies for prediction of oncoming ENSOs and their effects would enable ASEAN governments to make contingency plans in an extended dry season. Finally, Greenhouse gas abatement must accelerate to minimise climate change, as this has been linked to El Niño. The lack of commitment to this process in developing nations will not last for long as these are the places which will suffer most. The Asian region has at least seen a glimpse of the possible future and it should act as a motivation to try to avoid it. 1997 Forest Fire and Haze Disaster in Southeast Asia Box 1: Summarises the issues and some solutions.
Forestry and the ESD Policy Process
BibliographyPrincipal sources of information for the forest fires case study, but not provided in the reader include: Ajello, Robin 'The Bad Boy is Back, but no one knows how bad El Niño will be' Asiaweek October 10, 1997 pp.44-45 Pastor, Rene 'Singapore starts to run dry' The West Australian Monday, November 17 1997, p12. Potter, Lesley 'Where there's SMOKE there's FIRE' SEARCH Vol. 28, No.10, November/December 1997 pp. 307-311 Schmetzer, Uli 'Politics of haze' The West Australian Monday, November 1997, p12 Shephard, Catherine 'What is blowing in the wind? No one really knows the long term health toll' Asiaweek October 10, 1997 p39 Tan, Esther 'Bigger battle ahead to prevent haze in region 'New Straits Times Monday, October 6th, 1997. p.4 Tet Sieu, Choong 'Scorched' Asiaweek October 10, 1997 pp. 36-39. Zahari, Zen 1997 'Towards a More Sustainable Rubber Industry in Indonesia' unpublished PhD thesis, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, Australia. Comments on the ReadingsThe readings below deal with: Recent forest debates in Australia (Law, 1997; Wright, 1996), and the broader context of the future management of our forests (Dargavel, 1995); Case studies in forest management in developing countries (Barraclough et al., 1996; Kumari, 1996; Richards, 1996). Additional ReadingLaw. G. (1997). "World class forests vs world-scale woodchipping." Habitat Australia June. Wright, P & C. Triola (1996). "East Gippsland's final countdown." Habitat Australia August. Richards, M. (1996). "Protected areas, people and incentives in the search for sustainable forest conservation in Honduras." Environmental Conservation Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 207-217. Barraclough, S. & K. Ghimire (1996). "Deforestation in Tanzania: beyond simplistic generalisations." TheEcologist Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 104-109. Kumari, K. (1996). "Sustainable forest management: myth or reality? Exploring the prospects for Malaysia." Ambio Vol. 25, No. 7, pp. 459-467. Dargavel, J. (1995). "Forest prospects in a changing world." Chapter 10 in, Fashioning Australia's Forests. Oxford University Press, Australia. Study QuestionsWhat do you consider the most effective set of solutions to averting a repeat of 1997's disastrous forest fires in Indonesia and Malaysia? Divide your answers into short and long term, and into regulations, education and market-oriented approaches. Is it possible to see in the Asian region a stronger commitment to sustainable development emerging from the twin problems of the economic setback and currency crisis and the ecologically disastrous smoke haze issue? What roles could the use of so called 'environmental technology' play in the development of sustainable tropical forestry in the Southeast Asian setting? What are the pitfalls and limitations of these technologies? If you were a leading Indonesian forestry policy decision maker what key things would you do to provide full cost pricing of forestry resources and still provide incentives for profits? What would be the criteria for establishing a 'eco-labelling'‚ on products from Indonesian and Malaysian forest and rubber and palm oil plantations? What links do you see between the economy and ecological issues such as the smoke haze issue?
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