Understanding Causes Of Forest And Land Fires

The forest and land fires that occurred in many countries or provinces in Indonesia are not specific cases attributed to countries, ecosystems, people, locations, and even governments. Data on forest fires in Indonesia shows that the forest and land fires cannot be also systematically attributed to the oil palm plantations.

Several provinces with no oil palm plantations also saw a quite significant number of forest and land fire cases. Conversely, several other provinces which were eagerly developing oil palm plantations only had a relatively small number of forest and land fire cases.

The forest and land fires tend to occur randomly and phenomenally. The oil palm plantations and the people are the victims of forest and land fires.

INTRODUCTION

The forest and land fires have been recurring almost every year in Indonesia. During dry season, especially extreme one (El Nino) like this year, the forest, land and plantations fires occurred in many places. Despite of being reminded and anticipated long time before, the fires in the protected forests, lands and plantations still occurred.

Then when the fires were raging, all sides tend to feel uneasy, blame each other and very often fell into the use of unclear logic.

Instead of coming up with solutions, many people worsened the problem by becoming parts of the problem. Very often the victims of the fires became the “scapegoat” who are blamed as the cause of the fires without reasons that were based on rational analysis and empirical proofs.

Conclusions on the cause of fires had been already predesigned beforehand, so then field activities were focused on collecting data and information to validate the predesigned conclusions. The plantations found to have been burned or were still on fire will be directly accused as the cause of the fires. There were no further investigations whether the plantations were really the cause of the fires or the victims of the fires.

Considering the fires without clear logic is against the principle of presumption of innocence and it will not solve the real problem.

Theoretically, the forest and land fires can be caused by natural and human factors or a combination of the two. The natural factors include dry season and inflammable condition of the forests and lands, while the human factors include the human actions that executed intentionally and negligently.

There should be further analysis on whether the natural factors or the human factors that had caused the forest and land fires. Perhaps, the forest and land fires are caused by natural factors or something we do not know beyond the human variables.

Several questions for discussions regarding the phenomenon of forest and land fires:

• Are the forest and land fires are the specific case attributed to Indonesia, ecosystems, or locations?
• Are the forest and land fires are systematically related to oil palm plantations?
• Are oil palm plantations the causes or the victims of forest and land fires?

The answers to those questions are badly needed to understand the current forest and land fires in Indonesia.

THE PHENOMENON OF FOREST FIRES

Perhaps, to understand the phenomenon of forest, land and plantation fires, it is good to see such fires in many regions and countries. It is necessary to answer several hypotheses on the cause of the forest and land fires, whether they are specific cases to locations and ecosystems or not, and to what extent the public discipline and the anticipative capability of the government can affect the incidences of forest and land fires.

If we consider the incidences of forest and land fires in in the United States of America (USA) and European region, and compare them with those in Indonesia during the last five years, then we can get the following conclusions:

Size of forest/land fires (Ha) in USA, Europe, and Indonesia

First, like in Indonesia, forest and land fires have also occurred in USA and Europe. Averagely, the size of forest and land fires in the USA reached 491,400 hectares per year, while in European region reached 202,400 hectares per year.

The average size of forest and land fires in the two countries/regions is bigger than the average size of forest and land fires in Indonesia at 12,150 hectares per year. The data shows that the phenomenon of forest and land fires is not special case of Indonesia as such fires have also occurred in other countries with even more severe.

Second, forests in the USA and European region are sub-tropical ones, while the forests in Indonesia are tropical forests which are partly peat lands. Therefore, it can be concluded that the forest and land fires is not specific case that can be attributed to locations and also not specific of ecosystems, including peat lands. The mineral forests and lands also suffered from frequent cases of fires.

The data also explains that forest and land fires are not always related to oil palm plantations. The USA and European regions have no oil palm plantations, but there occurred forest and land fires which are even in bigger size than fires in Indonesia which has a vast area of oil palm plantations.

Third, the people of the USA and Europe have a high discipline, high care for environment, and very much calculating risks, at least higher than most people in Indonesia. But in fact, the forest and land fires have occurred every year in bigger size if compared to Indonesia. In other words, the variables of discipline and ethics of people living around are not the only variables that caused the forest and land fires.

Fourth, the USA and European region have the best system of forest fire anticipation in the world, the best equipment including satellite technology, high quality human resource, and the strong support of financing, at least better than Indonesia. But the data of the forest and land fires shows that apparently despite of having good preparations, capability and governments’ commitments, the forest and land fires could not be prevented.

Is the phenomenon of inter countries also occurred in Indonesia? To answer this question, let us see the data of forest and land fires in each province during the period of 2010 to July 2015 which was issued by the ministry of environment and forestry.

The data of forest and land fires in each province can explain the following issues:

1. Like the case in other countries, the forest and land fires in Indonesia tend to increase every year. In 2010, the size of forest fires in Indonesia was still 709.8 hectares. In 2014, the size increased to 44,500 Ha. The increase has shown that there is a need to improve our forest governance.
2. It seems there is no relation between forest and land fires and the oil palm plantations in Indonesia. There is no denying that the size of forest and land fires in major palm oil producing provinces, such as Riau and Central Kalimantan, is relatively big. But the provinces of East Java, West Java, and West Nusa Tenggara, which are not the centers of oil palm plantations, also had forest and land fires in quite big scale. Therefore, taking a conclusion that the forest and land fires are related to the oil palm plantations in Indonesia is not based on existing data.
3. East Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi and West Sulawesi, which are in the process of intensively developing their oil palm plantations, only saw a small size of forest and land fires as compared to the provinces that have long become the centers of oil palm plantations.

Therefore, the assumption that forest and land fires caused by development of new oil palm plantations is also very weak and not based on existing data.

Areas of forest fires in (Ha)

The above data has shown that the forest and land fires between countries and provinces in Indonesia are phenomena which have occurred randomly every year. The forest and land fires are not specific to ecosystems, locations, commodities and even not specific to the public discipline and the government’s commitment.

But the increase of forest and land fires at international and national levels has demanded an improvement of forest governance.

Perhaps, the forest and land fires are related to the management and ownership (property rights). Environmental economist from the World Bank, Theodore Panayotou (1993), said that one of the causes of forest damages, including forest fires, is related to the ownership (property rights) of the forests.

In all countries forests are common resources which are open (open access) for all people and are very often trapped in what is called the tragedy of common property (Hardin, G. 1968; Brown, G and C, Harris, JR. 1992; Markov, Z, et al. 2010). Hardin, who popularized the theory of tragedy of the common property, said that the common property rights is nobody’s property rights. Actually, the state forests as public property do not belong to anybody and all have access to enter and use them without having any responsibility to conserve them.

Presumably, the forest and land fires in various countries including Indonesia are the victims of the “tragedy of common”. Cases of state forest fires in almost provinces have strengthened the assumption. The general public, including people living around the forests, have no sense of belonging to the state forests around them, so that they do not care on whoever go in and out the forests, including setting fires on the resources.

Everyday people around the forests witness the activities of legal and illegal loggings in the state forests, while they themselves cannot do the same and enjoy the economic benefits of the state forests, which are located just across their house yards.

Therefore, as proposed by Panayotao, preventing the forest degradations due to fires and other factors requires the change of forest governance that should liberate the forests from the trap of the common property tragedy.

OIL PALM PLANTATIONS AND PEOPLE ARE VICTIMS

Whatever and whoever the causes, people have always become the victims of the forest and land fires. Besides disrupting their daily activities, thick smokes resulted from the fires had caused them to suffer from respiratory diseases.

Therefore, people who are victimized by the forest and land fires should get help from the government. Unlike the state forests as common property, the agriculture, plantations, and industrial forests are privately owned with private property rights, in which all benefits and losses are the responsibility of the owners.

So, just based on common sense, the agriculture, plantations, industrial forests and others in many places are victims of the fires. The oil palm plantations, for example, if caught on fires then certainly all palm trees will die. The loss from such fires in productive oil palm plantations will range between Rp80 -100 million per hectare that should be paid by the owners.

In other words, it is hard not to conclude that farmers and owners of oil palm plantations are the victims and not the causes of fires in their properties. The facts found in the field that oil palm plantations are burned or still on fire, through direct field monitoring or satellite images, could not necessarily stand as proofs that they are the fire sources or arsonists. Considering the big amount of the losses caused by the fires, it is not logic to conclude that the owners are the cause of the fires.

The fires on the oil palm plantations could be the unstoppable spread from the fires on other areas. During dry season with strong wind, especially in the areas of peat lands, fires can easily and quickly spread through underground or the land surface. There should be available satellite images and data of conditions several days or several hours before, so that the fires can be traced into its origins and how it spread to the burning oil palm plantations.

Whatever the reasons and whoever the causes, the fires in the oil palm plantations had inflicted losses to the owners, people around and other plantations in surrounding areas that are not on fires.

The thick smokes also disturb the activities of harvesting in the plantations that are not caught on fires, and the transportation of the fresh fruit bunches (FFB) to palm oil mills and then to seaports. In other words, the public, the oil palm plantations and even the whole palm oil industries are the victims of the forest and land fires.

CONCLUSION

The forest and land fires have occurred every year in the USA, Europe and Indonesia. Even the average size of forest and land fires in the USA and Europe is bigger than such fires in Indonesia. The forest and land fires are phenomena that are influenced by various variables, so that it is not easy to prevent the forest and land fires.

It seems that the forest and land fires did not happen systematically, in a sense that the forest and land fires are not specific to locations, ecosystems, people and to the government’s capability.

The forest and land fires are also not systematically related to the peat lands or peat forests.

Based on data of forest and land fires in  Indonesia, the forest and land fires are not systematically related to the oil and palm plantations. Several provinces without the oil palm plantations also saw quite big scale of forest and land fires. Conversely, other provinces which were intensively pursuing developments of oil palm plantations, only suffered from a small scale of forest and land fires.

Just based on common sense, it is hard to conclude that the sources and causes of fires in oil palm plantations are their owners. Considering the potential big losses inflicted by the fires and the types of forest and land fires in between countries and provinces in Indonesia, it is just logic to conclude that the oil palm plantations are the victims and not the causes of the fires.

Source : PASPI