For weeks since June, fires have been burning forests on Indonesian islands including Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Irian Jaya and Kalimantan (the Indonesia half of Borneo, an island shared with Malaysia) as the region waits for the monsoon, which is late this year. The fires have created thick haze in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore and as far away as the Philippines. Hundreds of thousands of people have been treated at hospitals. A news story by Jason Reed of the Reuters wire service reported a spokesman from South Sumatra's regional health office as saying that 26,000 patients in June and July, 29,600 in August, and 32,000 in September had visited the hospital.
The fires are not just sending thousands to hospitals and causing thousands of others to stay indoors. Smoke-filled air has been blamed for a collision of two ships and for an Indonesian Garuda Airlines crash and the smog closed several airports. Firefighters and experts from around the world have been sent to help.
According to news reports, fires were started on purpose to clear land on large plantations and small farms, although some people incorrectly blame the fires on dry climate conditions created by El Nino (the Pacific Ocean warming that affects the weather world wide.). Small farmers and plantation owners blame logging companies; logging companies blame the small farmers and plantation owners. Even after fires began raging on the islands of Java and Sumatra, peasants were still setting fires in Kalimantan. Some fires spread to underground peat formations. Because the Indonesian islands are so spread out and many places are so remote, the Indonesia government has a difficult time enforcing a ban on fires or even telling people about the extent of the problem.
Gerard Raven, of Reuters, reported that fires had spread from commercial forests to the primary forests, which support Indonesia's wildlife. He reported a representative of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) as saying at a London press conference that 29 Orang Utans had died. In other cases, according to the EnviroLink Network (ENN), fires have been driving scared wildlife out of the forests and into the hands of poachers and traders.
Finally, however, the monsoon seems to be arriving although rains will be intermittent over the next month and may not put out the fires for awhile, Chris Johnson of Reuters wrote on Oct. 9. Steady rain for about two weeks will be needed to douse the underground peat swamp fires, he reports.
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