Indonesian
forest fires on track to emit more CO2 than UK
Greenpeace
warns fires raging across forest and peatlands will match the worst
year ever and exceed the total annual carbon output of the UK
Damian Carrington
Wednesday 7 October
2015 14.46 BST
Fires raging across
the forests and peatlands of Indonesia are on track to pump out more
carbon emissions than the UK’s entire annual output, Greenpeace has
warned.
As well as fuelling
global warming, the thick smoke choking cities in the region is
likely to cause the premature deaths of more than 100,000 people in
the region and is also destroying vital habitats for endangered
orangutans and clouded leopards.
New drone video
footage from Greenpeace from around the Gunung Palung national park
in Kalimantan shows the peat fires smouldering underground, as well
as flames burning down trees, and the thick haze they produce.
There have been
almost 10,000 fires in the last month across Kalimantan (Indonesian
Borneo) and Sumatra, with the drifting smoke also provoking protests
from neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
The fires, mostly
started deliberately and illegally to clear forest for paper and palm
oil production, are on track to match the worst ever year of 1997. As
in that year, the region is currently experiencing a strong El Niño
climate phenomenon. This creates drought conditions in Indonesia,
exacerbating years of draining of peatlands, and creating tinderbox
conditions.
“As governments
prepare to meet in Paris to save the world from catastrophic warming,
the earth in Indonesia is already on fire,” said Greenpeace’s
Indonesian forest project leader Bustar Maita.
“Companies
destroying forests and draining peatland have made Indonesia’s
landscape into a huge carbon bomb, and the drought has given it a
thousand fuses. The Indonesian government can no longer turn a blind
eye to this destruction when half of Asia is living with the
consequences.”
Indonesia’s pledge
to the UN on climate action has been criticised for being vague on
how it will halt the fires.
The record forest
and peat fires of 1997 produced huge carbon emissions, estimated by
scientists at between 0.81 and 2.57 gigatonnes (Gt), equivalent to
13-40% of the entire world’s annual fossil fuel emissions. It lead
to the biggest annual jump in CO2 ever recorded. By comparison, the
UK’s carbon emissions for the whole of 2014 were 0.52Gt.
The health impact of
the forest and peat fires is also expected to be large, with the
resulting premature deaths across south-east Asia estimated at
110,000 deaths in an average year. More than 75,000 people are
already suffering from upper respiratory infections as a result of
the haze, according to media reports.
Raffles Brotestes
Panjaitan, director of forest fire control in Indonesia’s Ministry
of Environment and Forestry, explained why so many fires are started
deliberately:“Burning the forest is the fastest, cheapest and most
profitable method, instead of clearing with heavy equipment,” he
told Associated Press.
“Our regulation is
clear: no burning of forests. But [big corporations] violate the law
for the sake of profits.” He described the burning peatlands as a
vast smouldering stove, burning up to 10 metres (33 feet) deep.
“Ironically,
intact peatlands are actually very fire resistant, as they are
protected by a high water table,” said Professor Susan Page, an
expert on Indonesia’s peatlands at the University of Leicester, UK.
“The problem arises when peatlands are drained. Dry peat ignites
very easily and can burn for days or weeks, even smouldering
underground and re-emerging away from the initial source. This makes
them incredibly difficult to extinguish.”
The threat to
wildlife is extreme, according to Mark Harrison, of the Orangutan
Tropical Peatland Project (OuTrop). “Tropical peat-swamp forests
are one of the world’s most important ecosystems. They are home to
globally threatened wildlife, including the orangutan, southern
Bornean gibbon and clouded leopard,” he said.
“OuTrop’s main
research site in the Sabangau forest, Kalimantan, is a peat-swamp
that is home to the world’s largest orangutan population,” said
Harrison. “Fire here not only burns the surface vegetation, but
also the peat soil that has taken thousands of years to form. This
makes fire the biggest threat to Sabangau’s orangutans and many
other species that call this forest home.”
The Indonesian
government has deployed more than 22,000 soldiers, policemen and fire
personnel to fight the fires, with aircraft conducting water-bombing
and cloud-seeding operations. Another 6,000 soldiers are expected to
be deployed soon.
But peatland fires
are very difficult to extinguish and the only permanent solution is
to restore and protect rainforests and peatlands. Indonesian
president, Joko Widodo, has pleaded for the patience, saying the haze
is “not a problem that you can solve quickly.” He said: “You
will see results soon, and in three years, we will have solved this.”
Indonesia’s
government estimates that 63% of its greenhouse gas emissions are the
result of forest and peatland fires and land use change, but others
say the proportion is as high as 80%.
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