Map Projection

Lambert Equal-Area Azimuthal

Map Description

The occurrence of repeated fires has been a feature of Indonesia’s forests for thousands of years. However, over the past thirty years, the frequency and intensity of forest and land fires has increased, particularly on Kalimantan and Sumatra. This change has followed decades of forest mismanagement; extensive logging, degradation and the growth of scrub on deforested land have transformed vast areas from a fire-resistant to a fire-prone ecosystem.
A severe El Nino-induced drought struck Indonesia in 1997-1998, and brought extremely dry conditions to the already fire-prone land. Despite warnings from the Environment Ministry as well as total fire bans from the government, farmers - especially large-scale plantation owners - who wanted to take advantage of the dry conditions to clear degraded forest land continued to set fires across Indonesia, especially in areas of Sumatra and Kalimantan. Many of these fires from grasslands and scrub lands escaped into adjacent logged forests that burned with greater intensity. The fires eventually reached drained peat swamps and burned beneath the surface long after fires above the ground exhausted their fuel supplies. By early 1998, nearly 10 million hectares had been affected by fire, with damages estimated at nearly US$10 billion. This map shows the burned areas of forest under different land use types in East Kalimantan.