Impacts of fire and its use for sustainable land and forest management in Indonesia and northern Australia.

Indonesia

Dr Bronwyn Myers
Phone: (08) 8946 6726
Fax: (08) 8946 7088
Email: bronwyn.myers@cdu.edu.au

• Bushfires Council of the Northern Territory, Australia
• Wira Wacana Christian University, Indonesia
• Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia
• Provincial Development Planning Board, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
• University of Gajah Mada, Indonesia

$794,664

01/07/2002 - 30/06/2005

Dr Russell Haines

In 1997-98, fires in Indonesia cost US$9 billion through lost rice production, the destruction of large areas of forest and other effects. They also resulted in enormous areas of smoke pollution, with adverse health effects for Indonesia and neighbouring countries, and severe and extensive ecological damage. In eastern Indonesia, the breakdown of traditional fire management practices has contributed to declining land productivity through direct impacts on plantations and crops, soil loss and nutrient depletion, and associated water catchment degradation. In northern Australia, changing fire management practices have major implications for pastoral production and the ecological integrity of affected regions.
Both western and eastern Indonesia need to develop appropriate systems for managing landscape fire, and to incorporate these systems in workable fire management policies. In particular, there is a need for a better understanding of the underlying causes of fires, the extent and seasonality of burning, the impacts of various fire regimes and the evaluation of policy options. In eastern Indonesia, there is also a need to develop institutional capacity. Recent research in northern Australia has provided much of the information needed for improving fire management policies and has identified two broad regional patterns - the restricted use of fire on relatively arable pastoral lands and extensive, frequent late dry-season wildfires.

The aim of this project was to develop and implement appropriate fire management strategies and policies for Indonesia and northern Australia that will result in more sustainable productivity, better living standards for rural communities and less environmental damage.

This research built on methods previously used in western Indonesia and northern Australia. The project team used participatory mapping, social surveys, field surveys and remote sensing to study fire scars and burning patterns and to obtain information about the biophysical, social and economic impacts of fire. Throughout the project, scientists collaborated with communities and decision-makers to make sure that partner institutions benefited through technology transfer, training and education.
Researchers used satellite monitoring and associated GIS technologies to determine current patterns of burning and land-use changes. They reviewed the current national and regional policy and regulatory frameworks, established two demonstration sites to assess the impacts of different burning practices and to highlight improved land-use practices, conducted national and regional seminars and field days, assessed alternative fire management practices for different land-use objectives; and disseminated information through training and other activities.

The project focused on some of the poorest rural communities in Indonesia, seeking to help them to grow profitable crops on land considered unproductive due to recurrent fire. It included work on fire patterns in western Indonesia (southern Sumatra and eastern Kalimantan) as well as on Sumba and Flores in eastern Indonesia.
The work undertaken by CIFOR in western Indonesia comprised some biophysical and socio-economic analyses of the patterns, causes and impacts of peatland fires in east Kalimantan and southern Sumatra. CIFOR also analysed the impacts of government policies on fire management in both eastern and western Indonesia. It was clear from the peatland studies that there are significant economic incentives for communities to burn forests (e.g. access to fishing areas), and that fires will continue to be an issue until alternative livelihood options are available.
There was some doubt about the fire histories of the dry parts of both Flores and Sumba, but evidence pointed to large-scale changes in savannah woodland and closed forest cover on both islands since World War II. There was also conflict between fire management policy and practice, with the Dept of Forestry promoting a total fire exclusion policy (for forest resource protection) in a region that incurred regular, widespread fires. Ignitions have a range of causes, but seemed mainly to be of human origin; however, given the current distribution of vegetation types and structures over the islands and the seasonal climates, lightning ignitions were another likely cause. Fire has been and will continue to be an important part of traditional land management, especially for hunting, but local communities were extremely receptive to the notion that controlled use of fire can improve their options for agricultural production.
On Flores, the project work led to the development of a true agroforestry system, with native and exotic tree species being planted in mixtures with a range of food and fodder crops. Here the soil and climate can support this more intensive and layered system, and could possibly be enhanced further. On Sumba the options for such an integrated system may be more limited, given constraints of climate (lower rainfall) and poor limestone soils. More research is required to identify locally suitable alternative crops and forest products for fire-protected land, and monitoring of the outcomes (in terms of biophysical changes to landscapes and improvement to local economies and household livelihoods) of this and subsequent projects is essential.
The project originally intended to include West Timor as a third island, but external events conspired against this. With a more stable political situation in place, future research must also include Timor, where rural poverty is perhaps even greater than on Sumba or Flores, and where the challenges of changing fire patterns and establishing profitable local agricultural industries are more limited. The mapping of fire hotspots on Timor was indicative of the scale of the problem there.
The application of Australian remote sensing technologies and methods to fire mapping in NTT proved very successful, despite some challenges in respect of cloud cover and mapping of fire scars (reflectance of lower fuel loads and light soils, smaller size of many NTT fires). The technology transfer of these methods to local agency staff has been a major outcome of the project, building capacity for both fire mapping and general land-use mapping that will enhance planning activities in these remote areas.
The high level of engagement and participation of the local communities in the project was a significant factor in the project's success. The project review team found that both Australian and Indonesian project teams, and the stakeholders in government agencies and local communities, were committed to maintaining the impetus generated by the project, and to seeing it expand into other parts of NTT.