When the earth caught fire

Press, 23 April 1984, Page 14

When the earth caught fire

From

ROBERT LAMB,

in Geneva

Facts are only just beginning to be collated by United Nations agencies in Geneva of what may be the biggest forest fire ever known. It swept through at least 13,000 square miles (3.5 million hectares) of tropical forest in East Kalimantan, a province of the Indonesian part of Borneo, between February and June last year. That is a greater area than all the farmland in Canterbury. In parts of the area, the earth literally caught fire. Underlying deposits of soft coal (lignite) and of peat were ignited and continued smouldering for months. This caused flames to break out time after time in various parts of the forest.

Aerial surveys of what was happening were prevented by smoke and it was many months before researchers from the West German Institute of Forestry established the full scale of the

disaster. The loss is at least 11 times more than the combined areas of the many bush fires in Australia in 1982. Even now the full extent is not yet known and final figures could be considerably higher. The initial cause of the fire is unknown and at first sight it can seem surprising that it happened in one of the dampest regions on Earth; but for the last two years the whole Pacific region has suffered one of the cruellest droughts on record as a result of the behaviour of the ocean current nicknamed “El Nino.”

In bursts that occur every 80 years or so, “El Nino” repeatedly casts giant veils of unusually warm water across the Pacific’s surface. These disrupt normal weather patterns and play havoc with biological processes on water and land. Nobody knows how “El Nino” works or what its origin is. The effect occurs in a mild form

once in every three to six years and suddenly becomes more extreme in the 80-year cycle.

Indonesia harbours more of the world’s remaining tropical moist forest than any other nation except Brazil. Selective logging in many parts of it in Borneo has left large areas half-open until natural regrowth can fill them in. Where this happens, the forest floor, already littered with logging debris, acquires a profusion of shrubby growth where before it was kept clear by lack of sunlight. In a time of drought, followed by wildfire, this undergrowth has a kindling effect, stirring the flames into gigantic balls of fire. The disaster’s effects will be felt for at least 70 years to come, especially in terms of harvest cycles. The Indonesian Government faces difficult' decisions. It has had a stern lesson in conservation realities. — Copyright, London Observer Service.