Forest Fire & CC

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Tropical Forests and Climate Change Adaptation (TroFCCA)

Forest Fires and cl imate change in Indonesia

Background document f or t he Southeast Asia k ick-off meet ing of t he proj ectTropical Forest s and Clim ate Change Adapt at ion ( TroFCCA )

Bogor, May 29 30 2006

Het y Herawat i , Heru Santoso and Claudio Forner

Forest fires in Indonesia cause significant social and environmental impacts. Some fires occur naturallyand even play an ecological role. However, a substantial number are human-induced, either direct ly forland clearance or indirect ly by opening the canopy of c losed forests. In combination with human causes,

cl im ate change and cl im ate var iabil i t y are l ikel y to increase the ext ent and int ensit y of forest f ires.

Introduction

Forest fires in Indonesia have dragged theat t ent ion of t he internat ional community becauseof their environmental, social and economicconsequences. They have large negative impactson local and national development as theydirec t ly af fec t b iodivers i ty , the l ive l ihood andhealth of local people, and can also negatively

af fec t in f ras truc ture, t ranspor t and the fores tindustry. They also emit a large amount of greenhouse gases: fires in 1997-1998 made Indonesiaone of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases inthat year, as they released more than 700 mil l ionmetr ic tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere (Reiley1999 in Appl egate 2002).

Forest f ires are not new to Indonesia. Theyare said to be as old as the history of human kind.Writ ten records show that forest f ires have beenoccurr ing in Kalimantan since the 17 t h Century.However, since 1980, Indonesia has witnessed an

increase in the extent of the area, intensity andfr equency of f i res. Maj or events occurred in 1982-83, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1997-98 and 2002 (Bowen e t a l . 2001 and Tacconi 2003). The most severefires in the last twenty years occurred in 1997,affect ing approximately 11.7 mil l ion hectares,mostly lowland peat and swamp forests, t imberplantations and agricultural areas (Tacconi 2003).

What causes forest fires?

Forest f ires do not only der ive from human

act iv i t ies ; in fac t , a large number are l inked tonatural causes. Some forests have evolved under,

and are adapted to, f ire condit ions, and evenneed f ire for reproduction and the cycling ofnutr ients. Natural forest f ires are cyclical andobey to specif ic condit ions of c l imate, soil ,topography and vegetat ion: low humidity or drycl imate, suff ic ient accumulation of biomass andan ignit ion factor (usually a thunder). Strongwi nds could cont r ibut e to spread f ire.

However, human induced f ires areincreasingly contr ibuting to the occurrence off ires. These causes can be classif ied as fol low s:

Direct causes are those l inked to the act ofsetting up fire. Fire is usually seen as a cheapway to c lear land for agr icul ture and cat t legrazing activ it ies. Oil palm and forestplantat ion companies previously used f ire forsuch purpose. Likewise, local communities usefi re as it is t he cheapest way for c l ear ing land,or because they believe that i t could improvesoil properties. Fire is also used to provide

easier access for harvesting timber, fish andother products, to generate grass new sproutsor to ward off insects. Finally, a large amountof forest f ires are also init iated by carelesscamping.

Indir ect causes favour the occurrence andincrease the r isk of forest f ires. They includeact iv i t ies l ike road development, reset t lementprojects and logging activ it ies. Roaddevelopment through closed forest areas mayincrease risk of forest fires by opening accessto sett lers or gatherers to collect forest

products or to c lear forests. Logging activ it iescan also contr ibute to increasing the r isk of

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forest f ires as they open the canopy ( leadingto low microclimate humidity) and becausethey leave debris behind. In addit ion, human-induced changes in climate could be seen asindirect causes whenever they lead to anincrease in dry conditions and biomass in an

area.

The impact of forest fires on development

Forest fires have significant socio-economicconsequences. I t is est imated that the total lostcaused by the fires of 1997 -1998 was betweenUS$ 8.7 bi l l ion to 9.6 bi l l ion (Applegate et a l . 2002). Following is a general descr ipt ion of themaj or impacts f rom f orest f i res:

Health. Forest fires release toxic gases likecarbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3) , n i t rogendioxide (NO2), hydrocarbons, aldehydes,part i c les and polycyclic aromati c hydrocarbons(PAHs) (Ostermann and Brauer 2001). It isknown that exposure to these gases can causeacute respiratory inf ect ions.

Livelihoods. Many communit ies are st i l lbenefiting from forest goods and services.They harvest t imber and non t imber forestproducts and use water whose quantity andquality is l inked to the presence of forests. Asa result of forest f ires, there wil l be less ( interm of quant i ty , qual i ty and diversi t y ) t imberand non t imber products and services availablefor t he communit ies.

Biodiversity loss. Forest fires destroy largeforest areas that serve as habitat forb iodivers i ty . They direc t ly e l iminate p lantsand animals and also result in forestdegradation that leads to a decrease in thesurvival rate of the species. For example, thefi res in 1997-1998 result ed in 33 % populat iondecline of the Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) in

Borneo (Rijksen and Meijaard 1999 inSecretar iat of the Convention on BiologicalDiversity 2001). Moreover, fires in 1982-1983in Kutai National Parks (East Kalimantan)resul ted in widespread mor ta l i ty of rept i lesand amphibians (MacKinnon et a l . 1996 inSecretar iat of the Convention on BiologicalDiversity 2001) and lost of fruit trees thatcaused the populat ion of fruit-eating birdssuch hornbills declined dramatically (Nasi etal . 2002).

Forestry and agriculture. These sectors haveexperienced great economic loss due to forestf ires. Wild f ires and man made f ires have

destroyed large areas of natural commercialforests as well as agricultural crops, such aspulp wood and oi l palm plant at i ons.

Tourism. Some argue that the forest f ires in1997 1998 led to a decrease in tourism.

Visit ors may be concerned about t he eff ects ofsmoke haze to their health as well astransportat ion safety (see below). On theother hand, forest f ires can destroy forestswit h t he potent ia l t o be tour ism si t es.

Greenhouse gas emissions. Estimates suggestt hat i n 1998, more t han 12 mil l ion ha of c losednatural humid t ropical fores ts were burnt inBorneo, Sumatra, the Brazilian Amazon andMexico. Murdiyarso and Adiningsih (2006)estimated that Indonesia alone hadcontr ibuted 1.45 Gt C to the atmosphere in

that year .

Transportat ion. Haze from f ires has affectedvis ibi l i ty in some parts of Sumatra andKal imantan. I t has par t icular ly af fec ted thec i ty t raf f ic , sea t ranspor tat ion and f l ights tothe extent that accidents such as an airplanecrash and boat collisions at Malacca strait maybe l inked to problems of low vis ibi l i ty causedby forest f ires.

As an example to the economic loses causedby forest f ires, Table 1 includes some f igurescompiled by Applegat e e t a l . (2002) on the eventst hat t ook place bet ween 1997-1998 in Indonesia.

Climate variability and climate change inrelati on to forest fir es

As mentioned above, f ires require threeconditions to occur: fuel (biomass), dryness andan ignit ion factor. The l inkage between forestf ires and cl imate change is twofold: f irst, changesin c l imate have signif icant implicat ions on the

humidity of a region (e.g. they can lead to dr iercondit ions) and, second, they could increase theproduction of biomass, result ing from more rain,higher temperatures and a higher concentrat ionof CO2 in t he atmosphere.

Fut ure c l im ate change scenarios indicate t hatmost of Indonesia wil l become warmer andwetter, except i ts southern part ( including Javaand Bali) which wil l become dr ier (Hulme andSheard 1999). Predictions also point to anincrease in seasonal variability, which means thatthe country wil l experience more intense dryness

during the dry season. Extreme events as part ofthe interannual variability mechanism such as El



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Table 1. Summ ary of mean economic cost s of t he 1997-1998 drought and f ir es.

SectorMean est imat edeconomic losses(in mil lion US$)

AgricultureFarm crops 2,431Plantat ion crops 319

ForestryTimber fr om natural forest ( logged & unlogged 1,813Lost of growt h in natural forest 355Timber f rom plantat ions 91Non t imber forest products 631Flood prot ect ion 413Erosion and sil t at ion 1,354Carbon sink 1,446

Health 148

Building and propert y1

Transportat ion 33

Tourism 111

Fire f ight ing cost s 12

Total 9,158

Source: Applegat e et al. (2002)

Nio-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) or Indian OceanDipole Mode (IODM) are incr easing in int ensit y andfr equency (Lal et a l . 2001).

These project ions indicate a higher r isk off ires result ing from higher dry condit ions. Thisr isk is not l imited to the South of Indonesia (e.g.Java and Bali), as dry conditions over the wholeregion are exacerbated during the dry season dueto interannual c l im ate var iabi l i ty . In other words,the risk of fire during the dry season may increaseas a consequence of i nter nannual var iabil i t y .

The second factor af fect ing the occurrence offorest f ires is biomass. Warmer and wetterc l imate, together wi th a h igher concentrat ion ofCO2, can increase variables such as tree growth

rate, f inal radial stem size (Hattenschwil ler et a l . 1997) l i t ter- fal l and f ine root increment ( IPCC2001). An increased amount of biomass is a directincrease of t he available fuel, t hus conducing to apotential increase in the extent and intensity offorest f i res.

Geographical var iat ion in the predictedclimatic response over the Indonesian region wil lcause t he nature of t he f i re r i sks also t o vary.

Climate change and cl imate var iabil i ty arelikely to increase the risk of more seasonal and

small forest f ires in the sout hern part of Indonesia(south Sumatra, south Kalimantan, south

Sulawesi, Java, Bali and Nusatenggara). In theseareas, forests are generally dr ier and, therefore,the r isk of f ire increases dur ing the normal dryseason. In addition, increasing biomass due toincreased CO2 concentrat ion, despite of lesswater availabil i ty (Cao and Woodward 1998),further increases f ire r isk. Furthermore, withincreased seasonal var iabil i t y , t here is a t endencyof shif t ing from rain forest ecology to seasonalrain forest ecology, which provides more opencanopy and dr ier forest f loor in the dry season(Whitm ore 1998, Condit 1998, Werner 2003).

In the nor thern par t of the country (centra land northern Sumatra, most of Kalimantan,nort hern Sulawesi and Papua), t he r isk of big f ireswi l l be inf luenced by interannual c l imate

var iabi l i ty . Cl imate, in general , is l ike ly tobecome wet ter ; there wi l l be enough mois t toprevent forests from f ires dur ing normal years.Peatlands, which are r ich with organic content,are normal ly water - logged and di f f icu l t to burn.However, in the events of extreme drynesscaused by ENSO and IODM, the biomass is drierand the water table on peatlands drops, thusexposing large quantities of biomass and makingthem easy to burn. A combination of ENSO andIODM, such as t hose in 1992/ 1993 and 1997/ 1998,have caused severe droughts that correlates withthe increased number of hotspots of forest f ires

over Indonesia. These big fires can directly causeheavy loss in biodiversity, in part icular they can



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eliminate f ire sensit ive plant species quickly, andcan cause the forests to degrade and to be moresuscepti ble t o repeated f ires.

Science, policy and practice gaps

Indonesia has undertaken various efforts toprevent recurr ing forest f ires. For example, thegovernment has released a new regulat ion(Government Regulat ion 4/ 2001), which f orbidsall k ind of forest and land f ires, and has workedwith other Southeast Asian Countries onformulating ASEAN national and regional hazeaction plans and related technical programmes.However, those actions are unlikely to reduce ther isk of forest f ire because f ire is st i l l consideredas the cheapest and easiest way to clear the land.Moreover, policies and programmes have not

considered in detail underlying causes such asland tenure and land use al location confl ic ts andcompetition issues (Murdiyarso et a l . 2004). Theimpact of c l imate change and how i t may al terthe forest susceptibi l i ty to f ires have not beenproperly addressed.

In an effort to combat global warming,Indonesia has part ic ipated in the global c l imatechange forum for some years. It has in place anational strategy and policy on cl imate changesince 1993. In addit ion, the government adopteda National Action Plan on Climate Change in 1998,

it submitted its f irst National Communication in1999, i t established a National Committee andTechnical Team on Climate Change (NCCC) in2003 and rat if ied t he Kyoto Protocol i n 2004.

Unfortunately, some government andresearch inst itut ions, the pr ivate sector, NGOsand people at the local level are generally notaware of the consequences of c l imate change.The Indonesian National Capacity Self Assessment(NCSA) report, released in January 2006,highlighted the capacity constrains faced byIndonesia to face the challenge of a changingclimate. Some of them are:

- Ins t i tut ional capac i ty and commitment toaddress cli mat e change is low ;

- Relevant government sectors have notadequately addressed climate change issues,nor have translated them into appropriatelegis lat ions. Adaptat ion to c l imate change ispart icular ly lacking.

- There is a lack of capacity to assessvulnerabi l i ty , to develop regional c l imatemodels, to design and assess adaptationstrategies and to systematically observe and

monitor c l imatic var iables and cl imate changeimpacts;

- Syst ems for Int egrated dat a on cl im ate changehave not been set up;

Conclusion

The regional and internat ional at tent ion toforest fires in Indonesia has been increasing as aresult of the implicat ions for environment anddevelopment. Most f ires are human-induced,either by direct or indirect causes. In addit ion,their intensity and extent is, and wil l increasinglycont inue to be, par t ly inf luenced by c l imat iccondit ions. Under a scenario in which dr iercondit ions are expected in the country,vulnerabil i ty to c l imate change becomessignif icant for f ire policy. To support the decis ion

making process, there is a need to understandhow and where cl imatic condit ions are l ikely toincrease the frequency and intensity of forestf ires. From the adaptat ion standpoint, suchanalysis should consider the vulnerability of localcommunit ies as determined by foregone goodsand services from forests, other direct impacts inhealth and indirect impacts on transport, tour ismand other sectors.

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