CAUSE

Farmers who engaged in illegal slash-and-burn practices were the one

responsible for the spread of fires that started in Sumatras peatland. Many
farmers are practicing slash-and-burn because it is relatively expensive way
of clearing land despite being classified as an illegal activity.
This incident keeps on happening and affecting countries of Southeast Asia
for almost 20 years. What could be the reason behind all of this?

Fire as a tool for land cleaning

There is no best tool other than fire to clean the land in preparation for
planting. It Fire is the cheapest and fastest method. Fire is used to clear the
plant material left over from logging or old crops. Mechanically raking the
plant material into long piles and letting them rot over time, is expensive
and slow, and could harbour pests. Clearing land with machines and
chemicals can cost up to US$200 per hectare while using fire costs US$5 per
hectare.

Peatlands
An area of organic material such as leaves and twigs that accumulated
naturally under waterlogged conditions in the last 10,000 years is called
peatland. The layer of organic material can be up to 20 m deep. Indonesia
has 265,500 km2 of peatland, which comprises 13.9% of its land area.
Malaysia also has significant peatland, at 26,685 km 2, covering 8.1% of its
land area.
Because of this condition, the peat should be drained out to prepare the soil
for planting. In fact, other chemical methods should still be applied to
neutralize the soil from being in acidic condition. However, excessive
drainage of peat results to drying out of the top layer. Due to its high carbon
content, dry peat is extremely susceptible to burning.

Dry Season: El Nio

What does El Nio mean for Southeast Asia?
El Nio generally causes drier conditions over Southeast Asia and Australia,
and the effects vary with the seasons. Although Indonesia is known for its

rainy weather, during the boreal summer and fall, it has drier and longer dry
seasons. As an effect, it adds to the trigger susceptibility of producing wild
forest fires.

Corruption
In article written by Iain Marlow (The Globe and Mail, Oct 19), he personally
flew from Jakarta to Pekanbaru to see the effect of the phenomenon to the
local residents. According to his researches, the lands were originally given
to natives of the area but eventually sold it to private companies. Although
the villagers said that the companies were not responsible for setting the
plains on fire, they believe that other local authorities were the one the can
be blamed of. These officials benefit from the money that they receive from
the crops planted which are usually used and exported for the manufacture
of other products.