We were chatting when a Kenyah elder suddenly froze and shouted: "Fire is spreading. We must get everyone together and put it out."
The scene took place in February 1998 in a village in the Indonesi n province of East Kalimantan near the equator where I was visiting for research purposes. Orchards that villagers had spent nearly two decades cultivating were in flames. I helped put out the raging fire. The heat was intense and my eyes hurt with smoke. With my eyes welling with tears, I joined the villagers and tried to extinguish the flames by beating them with bunches of banana leaves and twigs. It was in vain, like sprinkling water on thirsty soil.
Before my eyes, orchards on which villagers had depended to make their living turned to ashes. The scene drove home to me the helplessness of humans. The sense of defeat was overwhelming. Haze from forest fires that raged throughout Indonesia from 1997 to 1998 caused serious health damage in neighboring countries. An estimated 9.7 million hectares, including areas other than woodlands, were destroyed. In Kalimantan alone, 6.5 million hectares were consumed by fire.
Studies by nongovernmental and international organizations clearly indicate that most of the fires were directly linked to programs to develop forests.
It works like this: Tropical forests are felled to develop palm oil plantations or to plant fast-growing trees such as acacias or albizias in accordance with a policy Jakarta has promoted since the 1990s.
First, tropical forests are cut down. The stumps are then burned and the ground is cleared for planting. The burning operation not only releases vast amounts of smoke but there is always the danger of fire spreading to other forests or farms, like the blaze that destroyed the orchards I mentioned earlier.
Oil extracted from oil palms is used for confectionery and cosmetics products. Albizias and acacias grow quickly and are felled to make pulp. Palm oil and pulp are both promising export products for Indonesia. The accelerating trend of economic globalization prompted the government, along with the private sector, to frantically develop tropical forests.
Next to Brazil and Congo (formerly Zaire), Indonesia has the world's third-largest area of tropical forests. Since they provide a habitat for a large number of species and because of their biological diversity, they are regarded as a crucial aspect of conservation efforts. Even so, these precious forests are being destroyed in the name of profit.
During the 1970s, when woodlands in the region began to shrink, the government blamed frequent fires on farmer who practice slash-andburn agriculture. That attitude remains unchanged.
That is why the government maintains forests must be managed by trained experts such as forest administrators, forestry company officials and scientists. It says the introduction of modern technology and education of the local people is a vital part of its policy to conserve the forest.
The Bahau in Kalimantan are blessed with many giant trees called Tana Mawaq that have traditionally been spared from felling. The trees are only cut down when local residents agree there is a need to clear space to build communit centers and other facilities.
In the early 1990s, however, about half of the forest areas were felled by a lumber company that plants trees for pulp production. The government granted rights to the company to cut and plant trees for commercial logging prior to the tree planting. Although the company eventually withdrew as a result of vigorous opposition, the damage was done.
Asia's tropical forests started to dwindle in the 1970s. Initially, trees were cut fo timber exports. In the 1990s, as felling advanced and led to deforestation, Asian governments adopted "tree-planting" policies to grow trees for pulp on the land that used to be covered by tropical forests. They argued that treeplanting also helps conserve the global environment. In reality, though, the remaining tropical forests were felled one after another to develop farms and albizia forests.
The felling deprived local residents of tropical forests that had always provided them with a rich variety of resources. In some cases, the local people have been forced to give up their land for commercial logging. Governments across Asia have come up with plans to employ the people who lost their land due to forestry work. However, those who remain unemployed could easily become economic refugees.
The critical condition facing tropical forests was addressed 10 years ago at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which adopted the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Forest Principles for conservation and sustainable development of forests. Both agreements stress it is important for citizens and the local people to take part in forest-conservation efforts.
Systems that encourage the participation of residents are also being established across Asia. Even so, many experts still maintain the exact opposite view.
Illegal logging and forest fires were also major items on the agenda of the recently held World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
It has become increasingly apparent in the last 10 years that experts who stick to exclusive, closed policy cannot effectively stop deforestation. It is vital that local people be allowed to participate. They must be given greater power in forest management. The so-called experts are the people who need to change.
Power of residents needed in forestry issue
