Nature Alert: Indonesia reports more than 500 fire hot spots in Sumatra

Wednesday 6 August 2008

Indonesia reports more than 500 fire hot spots in Sumatra

Indonesia reports more than 500 fire hot spots in Sumatra

Mon Aug 4, 2008

JAKARTA, Aug 4 (Reuters) - More than 500 hot spots have been spotted across Indonesia's Sumatra island, signalling the annual dry-season forest fires and the haze it sometimes carries, a Forestry Ministry official said on Monday.

Forestry ministry official fear the number of hot spots could exceed last year's record as the current dry season will be marked by less rain than usual, Sonny Partono, the director of forest fire control, told Reuters.

"According to the Meteorology agency, this year's dry season is very dry, not wet like last year. That's the problem," Partono said. "Looking at the fluctuation of hot spots, this year could be worse than last."Partono said he had recorded 8,000 hot spots since January.

Last year's dry season was wetter than usual, resulting in 35,000 hot spots, down from 144,000 in 2006.In the past, Indonesia's neighbours have grown increasingly frustrated by the annual fires, most of which are deliberately lit by farmers or timber and palm oil plantation companies to clear land for cultivation.

Malaysia's Meteorological Department said worsening haze has cut visibility in the busy Malacca strait to below 5 km (three miles) and said that it could be dangerous to ships that do not have navigational aids.A report last year by the World Bank and Britain's Department for International Development said Indonesia was among the world's top three greenhouse gas emitters because of deforestation and forest fires.

Forest and land fires account for 57 percent of Indonesia's non-industrial greenhouse gas emissions, the report said. (Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Sara Webb and David Fox) (Reuters Messaging: olivia.rondonuwu@reuters.com@reuters.net; Tel: +62-21-384-6364))

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.