It was once thought that rain forests were resistant to fire because of their high humidity and the fact they stay lush and green all year long.

However, in Indonesia, the opposite is true because forest fires occur annually during the dry season.

Decades of reckless logging and the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture by farmers and plantation companies have made forested areas, bush and grasslands across the archipelago, particularly in Sumatra and Kalimantan, highly vulnerable to fires during the annual dry season between June and October.

It is tragic that the government has failed to learn from the series of forest fires that have occurred since 1982, ignoring the ecological and economic losses, health costs and disruptions to shipping and aviation in the country and its neighboring countries, notably Singapore and Malaysia.

Forest fires will continue to occur unless the government, in cooperation with all other stakeholders -- local administrations, plantation companies, farmers and non-governmental organizations -- embarks on developing a national forest fire management system covering preventive and suppressive programs.

The dropping of water bombs and other fire-fighting efforts that the government has been carrying out over the last few days may douse the flames for the time being. But come the rainy season, things will regress into "business as usual". We will be grappling again with major forest fires during the dry season next year, if the root causes of forest fires are not removed.

As recently as the middle of August last year, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi was forced to declare a state of emergency at Malaysia's biggest seaport Port Klang and Kuala Selangor due to severe haze and air pollution caused by forest fires in Sumatra.

It is important to note that most of the forest fires in Indonesia are manmade, either by farmers or big plantation companies who still see burning as the cheapest and only available tool to reduce vegetation cover and prepare and fertilize extremely poor soil. And fires will undoubtedly continue to be used for land clearance and soil enrichment, by both individuals and companies, in the foreseeable future if the government does not strengthen the enforcement of the 1994 ban on the burning of forest and grasslands for regeneration or land clearance.

The fact that so few offenders have been taken to court -- even though dozens of major forest fires have occurred in the country since the early 1980s -- has made a complete mockery of our legal system.

An effective forest fire management system should consist of: Preventive measures, such as the ongoing education of smallholders on the dangers of slash-and-burn agriculture and stronger enforcement of the no-burning regulation, especially against recalcitrant plantation companies; and suppressive measures by improving the technical capacities of forest fire departments.

The solution thus lies in strengthening technical capacities for fire prediction (early warning system) and prevention and mitigation through increased cooperation and interaction among all stakeholders.

Information campaigns and training on fire prevention and suppression should be brought in as ongoing programs for farming communities, schoolchildren and local officials, especially in areas prone to forest fires. The distribution of leaflets and pamphlets to local communities, describing the dangers of forest fires, and fire-control manuals would also help raise public awareness.

Given Indonesia's vast forest areas and inadequate communications infrastructures, it is very difficult to suppress forest fires once they spread. Early warning and detection may be the only way to effectively reduce the damage done by forest fires. Because the best way to fight a forest fire is to attack it while it is still small.

Several big plantation companies such as PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper in Riau have invested millions of dollars in the development and operation of fire prevention and fire fighting systems for their concessions. But the government or local administrations should make it compulsory for all plantation companies, especially in Sumatra and Kalimantan, to establish a forest fire management system, including the operation of modern fire-detection and forest fire-fighting equipment. After all, fire prevention also directly protects their interests and the future of their investment.

The government or local administrations could then coordinate and converge the network of forest fire management units at plantations firms on the two islands into a national forest fire management system.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060831.E01