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Causes and Impacts of Forest Fires:�A Case Study from East Kalimantan, Indonesia�(IFFN No. 22 - April 2000, p. 35-40)�

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Area of Fires: Tropical forests of Kalimantan Timor on the Island of Borneo in Indonesia�

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What happened – facts of the fires

1997-1998 Indonesia: one of largest fire disasters ever
5.2 million ha of area destroyed in Kalimantan
A year-long drought
Cause: reported by media as caused by slash-and-burn farmers and plantation companies
Journalists never actually reached villages to investigate what really happened

In 1997-1998 Indonesia experienced one of the greatest fire disasters ever on earth (Seigert et al. 1999). Over 5.2 million hectares of land was destroyed in East Kalimantan on the Island of Borneo in Indonesia. Conditions were ripe for farmers because Kalimantan had been experiencing a year-long drought. As the fires raged, the media reported that the fires were caused by a combination of slash-and-burn farming by locals (to clear the land for agroforestry activities – developing swidden fields, or rain fed upland rice fields, and land for forest gardens for rattan, fruits, and rubber) and clearing of land by fire for plantations for large companies. What is intriguing is that the journalist never conducted field research to curry data on the fire incidences in the villages where the fires began (. What we’ll explore is the story behind the fires. You will develop a feedback loop (positive or negative?) that links the players causing the fire and the fires that occurred.

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Life with the Addition of Oil Palm Company

1990s: Traditional land use patterns changed
1993: HTI industrial forest plantation and transmigration project cleared several hundred ha of managed forest
1996: Indonesian palm oil company planned to clear 96,000 ha for plantation (36,000 ha cleared by 1997)

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Violent land tenure conflicts arose in 1996:�

Most related to conversion of forest gardens bought by palm oil company from landowners

Some landowners sold land that didn’t belong to them

Some legitimate landowners had their land cleared by the company without their permission

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Violent land tenure conflicts arose in 1996

Landowners wanting to keep their land used signs saying: “Do not convert”

When fires began (1997), these gardens burned first!

Fires stopped in September 1998 w/rain (affected 75-80% of forest gardens in study area)

Village life suffered: decreased resource production, respiratory problems, nutritional problems due to failed harvest

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Exercise:

You will be split into five groups of 5 or 6
Each group should spend 5 minutes constructing their feedback loop
Each group will then have someone come to the board to draw their feedback loop
We will finish by discussing possible versions of the feedback loops

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Construct a Feedback Loop based upon:

Oil company moves in – clears land
Fires begin (still unsure of source)
People lose resources (homes, livelihood to fires) and emotions rage = social upheaval
People attribute fires to enemy (personal or oil palm company). In return, these people set more “revenge fires.”
Traditional management between the company and villagers doesn’t work
More social upheaval occurs
More fires rage

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Example of Positive Feedback Loop

Oil company changes land use

Increase in fire damage

Social upheaval

Traditional management fails

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Time Allotment:

10 minutes: Introduction with PowerPoint
5-10 minutes: Groups develop feedback loops
15 minutes: Discuss feedback loops from each group
5 minutes: Wrap up on what was learned about feedback loops
Homework: Construct a feedback loop based upon an existing or past environmental issue

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References

Siegert F., Rücker G. & A. Hoffmann (1999). Evaluation of the 1998 Forest Fires in East-Kalimantan (Indonesia) Using NOAA-AVHRR hotspot Data and Multitemporal ERS-2 SAR images. Proceedings of the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium Hamburg, 28.6.-2.7.1999 (IGARSS), IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, Spring, TX 77379 USA.

Gonner, Christian. 2002. Causes and Impacts of Forest Fires:�A Case Study from East Kalimantan, Indonesia (IFFN No. 22 - April 2000, p. 35-40). http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/iffn/country/id/id_24.htm (30 October 2003).