TRIAL BY FIRE F OREST F IRES AND F ORESTRY P OLICY IN I NDONESIA’ S E RA OF C RISIS AND R EFORM CHARLES VICTOR BARBER JAMES SCHWEITHELM WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE FOREST FRONTIERS INITIATIVE IN COLLABORATION WITH WWF-INDONESIA & TELAPAK INDONESIA FOUNDATION INDONESIA’S FOREST COVER Notes: (a) Hotspots, showing ground thermal activity detected with the NOAA AVHRR sensor, represent an area of approximately 1 square kilometer. Data from August - December 1997 were processed by IFFM-GTZ, FFPCP (b) Forest cover is from The Last Frontier Forests, Bryant, Nielsen, and Tangley, 1997. "Frontier forest" refers to large, ecologically intact and relatively undisturbed natural forests. "Non-frontier forests" are dominated by eventually degrade the ecosystem. See Bryant, Nielsen, and Tangley for detailed definitions. AND 1997-98 FIRE HOT SPOTS CA, and FFPMP-EU. ondary forests, plantations, degraded forest, and patches of primary forest not large enough to qualify as frontier forest. "Threatened frontier forests" are forests where ongoing or planned human activities will TRIAL BY FIRE F OREST F IRES AND F ORESTRY P OLICY IN I NDONESIA’ S E RA OF C RISIS AND R EFORM CHARLES VICTOR BARBER JAMES SCHWEITHELM WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE FOREST FRONTIERS INITIATIVE IN COLLABORATION WITH WWF-INDONESIA & TELAPAK INDONESIA FOUNDATION TO COME Publications Director Hyacinth Billings Production Manager Designed by: Papyrus Design Group, Washington, DC Each World Resources Institute report represents a timely, scholarly treatment of a subject of public concern. WRI takes responsibility for choosing the study topics and guaranteeing its authors and researchers freedom of inquiry. It also solicits and responds to the guidance of advisory panels and expert reviewers. Unless otherwise stated, however, all the interpretation and findings set forth in WRI publications are those of the authors. Copyright © 2000 World Resources Institute. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-56973-408-9 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 00-103990 Printed in the United States of America on chlorine-free paper with recycled content of 50%, 20% of which is post-consumer.. CONTENTS Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................... V Foreword ................................................................................................................................. VI PART I: THE 1997-98 FOREST FIRES IN INDONESIA: IMPACTS, COSTS, AND CAUSES I. An Inferno in Waiting: Indonesia’s Forest Policy ................................................. 1 Suharto’s Regime and the Fate of the Forest ............................................... 1 Forest Fires: The Policy Connection ............................................................. 4 II. Historical Perspectives.......................................................................................... 5 A Recurring Phenomenon............................................................................. 5 The Great Kalimantan Fire of 1982-83 ........................................................ 6 III. The 1997-98 Fires ............................................................................................... 8 The Government Response ............................................................................ 8 The Politics of Fire ....................................................................................... 12 IV. Counting the Cost: Impacts of the 1997-98 Fires ................................................ 15 Effects on Forest Fauna and Flora................................................................ 16 Effects on Water Flows and Water Quality.................................................... 17 Effects on the Atmosphere............................................................................. 17 Effects on Human Health.............................................................................. 17 V. Direct Measures to Counter Future Fire Outbreaks: Recommendations ........... 21 Notes for Part I .................................................................................................................... 25 PART II: BEYOND THE FOREST FIRES: REFORMING INDONESIAN FOREST POLICY VI. The Political Economy of Forests in the Suharto Era ......................................... 28 Logging Practices in the Suharto Era .......................................................... 29 Industrial Timber Plantations...................................................................... 31 The Oil Palm Boom ...................................................................................... 32 The Transmigration Program ...................................................................... 33 The Million-Hectare Peat-Swamp Project in Central Kalimantan ............. 33 VII. Prospects for Forest Policy Reform .................................................................... 38 Is Real Reform Possible? .............................................................................. 33 VIII. Recommendations for Forest Policy Reform ...................................................... 42 About the Authors ................................................................................................................. 53 Notes for Part II ................................................................................................................... 54 References ............................................................................................................................. 54 WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE III FOREST FRONTIERS INITIATIVE Appendixes Appendix A: BAPPENAS-ADB Methodology for Estimating Economic Costs of the 1997-98 Fires in Indonesia.......................... 62 Appendix B: What is Known (and Not Known) About the Ecological Impacts of the 1997-98 Fires ............................................................ 64 Appendix C: Certification Procedures of the Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute (LEI) ... 67 Maps Map 1: Indonesia’s Remaining Frontier Forests ............................................... 68 Map 2: Distribution and Intensity of “Haze” from Forest Fires in Indonesia, September-November 1997 ........................................ 69 Map 3: Distribution of Wild Orangutan Population, Accumulated Hot Spots, and Protected Areas in Kalimantan, 1997-98 ................................. 70 Map 4: Forest Uses and Areas Burned in 1997-98, East Kalimantan Province ................................................................ 71 Maps 5a-c: Land Clearing and Fire on the Central Kalimantan Million-Hectare Rice Project, May 1995-July 1997 ......................... 72 List of Boxes 1. Indonesia’s Forest Resources................................................................... 2 2. Indonesia’s Economic and Political Crises ............................................ 3 3. El Niño, Drought, and Forest Fires in Indonesia .................................. 5 4. Fires in Tropical Forests .......................................................................... 6 5. Shifting Cultivation and Fire in Indonesia .......................................... 7 6. What Burned and Where? ...................................................................... 11 7. The Politics of Data Manipulation: How Much of East Kalimantan Burned During 1997-98? .............. 14 8. Human Health Effects of Smoke from Forest Fires .............................. 18 9. The Forests of Kalimantan and Sumatra Before the Suharto Era ....... 28 10. Megaproject Madness: The Mamberamo Basin Project in Irian Jaya .. 37 11. Forest Policy Reform Conditionalities in the IMF Economic Bailout Package ................................................................................ 39 12. Integrated Conservation and Development Projects in Indonesia ....... 43 13. Community Mapping Strategies and Techniques ................................. 44 14. Traditional Resource Rights and Conservation .................................... 45 15. Forest Watch Indonesia: An Experiment in Citizen Monitoring of Forest Status and Development .................................................... 46 16. Timber Certification in Indonesia: The Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute (LEI) ................................... 49 List of Tables 1. Estimated Extent of Spatial Damage by Fire, 1997-98 ........................ 10 2. The Economic Costs of the 1997-98 Fires and Haze ............................. 15 3. Health Effects from Fire-Related Haze Exposure in Eight Indonesian Provinces, September-November 1997 ................ 19 4. Timber Plantation Development to 1998 .............................................. 31 5. Oil Palm Plantation Development in Indonesia, mid-1980s to 1998 ..... 32 6. Losses Incurred by Seven Villages in the Mengkatip Watershed Resulting from Land Appropriation and Fires Associated with the Million-Hectare Rice Project ...................................................... 35 WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE IV FOREST FRONTIERS INITIATIVE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS e would like to extend The report greatly benefited our thanks to the from external reviews provided by W many people and Emily Harwell, Hira Jhamtani, institutions who contributed to the Hariadi Kartodihardjo, Tahir Qadri, development of this report. and Michael Ross. At WRI, valuable comments, Valuable information and support, and guidance came from ideas were also provided by Mubariq Cristina Balboa, LauraLee Dooley, Ahmad, Longgena Ginting, Emy Antonio La Viña, Anthony Janetos, Hafild, Derek Holmes, Johannes