Applegate, G., Smith, R., Fox, J.J., Mitchell, A., Packham, D., Tapper, N. and Baines, G. 2002. Forest Fires in Indonesia: impacts and solutions. (original) (raw)
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The 1998 Forest Fires in East Kalimantan (Indonesia)
Remote Sensing of Environment, 2000
Boosted by the 1997/98 El Niñ o-Southern Oscillation The process of selective logging produces millions of tons (ENSO) phenomena, uncontrolled fires have destroyed of dead biomass, which serves as fuel for fires. Fire is used huge areas of rainforest and bush land in Indonesia. for large-scale land clearing, for example, for pulpwood Thick smoke covered large areas over SE Asia for and industrial crop plantations as well as by farmers to months. Due to their cloud and haze penetrating capabilclear land and burn agricultural waste (Schweithelm, ity SAR sensors could complement existing fire monitor-1998). Because of the severe drought caused by the 1997/ ing systems based on NOAA-AVHRR data, providing a 98 El Niñ o phenomena, fires could easily spread uncon-900 times higher spatial resolution. This article describes trolled over large areas of rainforest, grass-, and bushland. results of the combined synergistic use of NOAA-AVHRR Economists estimated the economic damage due to smoke hotspot data received and processed by the IFFM/GTZ alone in 1997 to more than 1.4 billion US$ (Schweithelm, project and multitemporal ERS-2 SAR images for burned 1998). The damage to the forest resources such as timber scar mapping in the province of East Kalimantan. and plantations is uncertain due to a lack of comprehen-Burned areas detected by ERS were verified using sive data. Data are also lacking for the effects on the pre-AVHRR sensor hot spot data and extensive field surveys cious and fragile ecosystem of tropical rainforest, on speduring the fire season in April 1998. Furthermore, a vegcies diversity and soil erosion. Furthermore, biomass etation classification discerning five classes was derived burning plays an important role as a major source of trace from the ERS-2 SAR images and compared to the gases and aerosols in the atmosphere. This results in a mapped burned scars. The total burned area of the test strong contribution to the anticipated climate change and site is estimated to be 1.3 mil ha out of 1.85 mil ha particularly in emissions of CO 2 fixed in the biomass as (71%).
Large-scale fire: creator and destroyer of secondary forests in Western Indonesia
Journal of Tropical Forest Science, 2001
Large scale, catastrophic fires have become a significant and visible part of the tropical forest landscape in the past two decades with increased commercial exploitation of forests, forest conversion and increased population pressure. Secondary forests are an increasingly prominent feature of tropical landscapes and fires play a significant role in both the creation and destruction of these forests. In the past two decades large scale forest fires have become more frequent in the moist tropics. In addition to climatic factors, the nature of tropical forests appears to be changing and becoming, as a consequence, more predisposed to burning. Secondary forests arising from intensive logging, in particular those that are in a degraded condition, are particularly vulnerable to repeated burning and further degradation. There has been limited general success in fire prevention and rehabilitation of secondary forests affected by fire. In addition, forest policy is not yet sufficiently attu...
Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity
Tata HL, Narendra BH, Mawazin. 2018. Forest and land fires in Pelalawan District, Riau, Indonesia: Drivers, pressures, impacts and responses. Biodiversitas 19: 544-551. Pelalawan District of Riau Province, Indonesia was one of the districts most damaged by fire in 2015. Analysis of factors driving the fires, of pressures arising from the fires and of responses to the fires in Pelalawan District was conducted using two approaches: semi-structured interviews regarding social and policy aspects, and analysis of biophysical factors such as soil properties and spatial data. Results showed that forest functions (i.e. the functions served by different forest types) was positively related to hotspot density (R2=0.9868), while distance to nearest road less affected hotspot distribution (R2=0.1612). Multiple regression analysis of the relationship between hotspots density and four variables resulted in the following model: Y = 0.005384 + 0.000021 Soil Type + 0.000019 Distance to Road + 0.0000...
EFFECTS OF FIRES ON PEAT SWAMP AND LOWLAND DIPTEROCARP FORESTS IN KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA
The effects of the fires that burned over 4.7 million ha of Indonesia's tropical forests during 1997 and 1998 are largely unknown. We assess the immediate impacts of these fires on five forest areas representing several different habitats in Kalimantan 1-2 months after the fires went out. Comparisons of transects in burned and unburned forest areas were conducted at three sites: Tanjung Puting National Park, Kutai National Park, and Sungai Wain Nature Reserve. In general, burned forests had reduced canopy and ground cover, lower tree species richness and diversity, and higher canopy tree, seedling, and sapling mortality than unburned forests. Species richness in peat swamp forests at Tanjung Puting was reduced by 59% by the fires, and in two lowland dipterocarp forests by 24% (Sungai Wain) and 57% (Kutai). Resurveying of transects at Tanjung Puting 8 months after the first survey showed that burned forests suffer higher tree mortality and further species loss in the months following fires. In addition, species richness was lower in forests that had been logged prior to burning than in forests that had been undisturbed before the fires. The long-term ecological effects of burning on forest diversity, structure, and species composition are discussed, and the conservation implications of the high fire hazard in Indonesia are considered.
Forest and Land Fires Are Mainly Associated with Deforestation in Riau Province, Indonesia
Remote Sensing
Indonesia has experienced extensive land-cover change and frequent vegetation and land fires in the past few decades. We combined a new land-cover dataset with satellite data on the timing and location of fires to make the first detailed assessment of the association of fire with specific land-cover transitions in Riau, Sumatra. During 1990 to 2017, secondary peat swamp forest declined in area from 40,000 to 10,000 km2 and plantations (including oil palm) increased from around 10,000 to 40,000 km2. The dominant land use transitions were secondary peat swamp forest converting directly to plantation, or first to shrub and then to plantation. During 2001–2017, we find that the frequency of fire is greatest in regions that change land-cover, with the greatest frequency in regions that transition from secondary peat swamp forest to shrub or plantation (0.15 km−2 yr−1). Areas that did not change land cover exhibit lower fire frequency, with shrub (0.06 km−2 yr−1) exhibiting a frequency of...
Understanding the Impacts of Recurrent Peat Fires in Padang Island – Riau Province, Indonesia
Jurnal Ilmu Kehutanan
Padang Island in Riau Province of Indonesia has been severely impacted by recurrent fires in 2014 and 2015, leading to severe peat ecosystem degradation and people´s livelihood. Therefore, analyzing the peat fires should not be isolated from socio-economic and local political context. Much has been written about peat fires especially the magnitude of the fires, however the linkages between ecological and livelihood system of peatland ecosystem gained only scant attention. This paper analyzes how the drivers of peat fires are causing a steady decline in Padang Island and aims to provide more holistic understanding on how the drivers interplay and continue to feed the process of peatland degradation with its associated impacts on local economic development and people’s livelihood. Multidisciplinary approach was applied in this study. This includes remote sensing data analysis, analysis on related documents such as historical documents and regulations. Intensive fieldwork was conducte...
Land use and vegetation fires in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia
Forest Ecology and Management, 2003
In Indonesia, vegetation fires occur every year in the dry season. To determine where and why fires occur, the natural and cultural landscape features that influence the location of fires were analysed. We investigated the probability of fire occurrence as a function of predisposing conditions and ignition sources, such as land use, land use zoning, accessibility or land cover, to understand the spatial determinants of fires. The study area is the entire province of Jambi, central Sumatra, Indonesia. This province has a diverse setting of actors (small-and large-holders), land cover types and land uses. Fires were extracted for 1992/ 1993 from National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA-AVHRR) satellite data. The results of the spatial statistical analysis show that fire occurrence in Jambi Province in 1992/1993 was determined both by predisposing conditions (mostly climate, elevation and suitability for specific tree crops) and human-related causes (presence of transmigration projects and land allocation to specific land uses). National policies are thus a major driving forces of fires through land allocation. Road accessibility is only an important determinant of fires in forests. Few fires seem to be accidental. While logging companies control fire during their exploitation of concessions, logged-over forests and forests allocated to production but not yet under use have many fires. In 1992/1993, large-and small-holders were likely to be both responsible for fire occurrence. These results highlight the large influence of land use and policies on vegetation fires in Indonesia. #