Global Review of Forest Fires

Rowell, A. and P. F. Moore

This report is a follow-up to the WWF International Discussion Paper The Year the World Caught Fire which was published in December 1997. As the fires began to burn again in 1999, many forests had not recovered from the fires of 1997/98. It provides research results illustrating that the world faces a positive feedback cycle in which climate change exacerbated by forest fires and deforestation, increases the frequency of the El Niño phenomenon, which in turn causes more forest burning especially in logged areas. This raises the possibility of large wild-fire episodes happening on such a frequent scale that the forest ecosystem will not be sustainable. The report recommends that the ecological, cultural, social and economic cost of fires is so immense that there is an immediate need for committed strategic thinking backed up by firm practical action.

Link to publication (pdf 598 kb)

Workshop Report
Land Clearing on Degraded Lands for Plantation Development

Edited by Dicky Simorangkir, Peter Moore, Nina Haase and Ginny Ng with contribution from workshop participants

Link to publication (pdf 3,390 kb)

A Review of Legal, Regulatory and Institutional Aspects of Forest and Land Fires in Indonesia.
Project FireFight, South East Asia, Bogor, Indonesia

Prepared by Simorangkir, D. and Sumantri, 2002

This study has identified some main constraints, weaknesses and basic problems in implementing laws and regulations on forest and land fire management. In dealing with the forest and land fire problems the Indonesian government has issued numerous laws, regulations, decrees, guidelines, and directives on the management of forest and land fires, especially in the past decade. At the same time, a multi-sectoral organisational and institutional structure for forest and land fire management at different levels has been developed. Experiences from the last two decades have demonstrated that the developed legal, regulatory and institutional approaches were ineffective for various reasons. This review highlights various ways to overcome these constraints and weaknesses, for example, there is a need for set accountability standards for public sector authorities in addition to consequences in failing to meet those standards.

Link to publication (pdf 666 kb)

Convicting Forest and Land Fire Offences: A Case Study of the Legal Process in Riau, Indonesia

Link to publication (pdf 3,671 kb)

The Economics of Fire Use in Agriculture and Forestry - A Preliminary Review for Indonesia
Project FireFight, South East Asia, Bogor, Indonesia

Prepared by Dr. Anne Guyon and Dr. Dicky Simorangkir, 2002

This report reviews existing knowledge on the financial costs and benefits of using fire in agriculture and forestry for different types of land holdings. It also compares burning with the zero-burning method, which has been developed by large-scale commercial companies in South East Asia, especially in Malaysia, in the last 20 years. The study identified that smallholders do not have the resources to invest in no fire land clearing techniques. Instead, establishing appropriate community institutions and clearly defined tenure will help to promote responsible fire use among local communities. The financial analysis of the costs and benefits of fire versus no fire land clearing techniques indicates that zero-burning methods are not more expensive than burning. When comparing the relatively low financial costs of zero burning and fire management with the enormous socio-economic costs of fire damage and impacts, it is clear that in economic terms there are market and institutional failures in fire management.

Link to publication (pdf 670 kb)

Fires in South East Asia - Analysis, Insights and Ideas from Project FireFight South East Asia

Prepared by Anja Hoffman, Peter Moore, Dicky Simorangkir and Nina Haase

Link to publication (pdf 1,182 kb)

Fires, Laws and Regulations Towards Best Practice for Legal Aspects of Fires

Edited by Dicky Simorangkir, Patti Moore, Nina Haase, and Peter Moore

Link to publication (pdf 1,420 kb)

Framing Fires: A country-by-country analysis of forest and land fires in the ASEAN nations

Prepared by Dr. David Ganz

Link to publication (pdf 1,8387 kb)

A Review and Analysis of Legal and Regulatory Aspects of Forest Fires in South East Asia
Project FireFight, South East Asia, Bogor, Indonesia

Prepared by Azrina Abdullah, 2002

In the last two decades South East Asia countries, particularly Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, have experienced major fire and haze events with enormous negative impacts. The 1997/98 occurrences was the worst experienced in the region in the last 15 years –affecting 70 million people in several countries across South East Asia, both in the short and long term, and prompted many calls for proactive plans from concerned governments of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). This review of the existing forest fire regulatory regimes of the 10 ASEAN countries has identified common problems as well as constraints and weaknesses faced by ASEAN. The review addresses issues that impede the enforcement of laws and regulations at the regional level and provides elements for national forest fire regulatory regimes to overcome these constraints and weaknesses and to create conducive conditions for the management of forest fires.

Link to publication (pdf 627b)

Community Involvement in and Management of Forest Fires in South East Asia
Project FireFight, South East Asia, Bogor, Indonesia

Prepared by Sameer Karki, 2002

This review is guided by the aim of Project FireFight South East Asia (PFFSEA) to document successful community experiences with forest fires and analyse the political, institutional, cultural and economic elements that enable local communities to actively engage in preventing uncontrolled burning. The case studies in this review show that successful community involvement in forest fire management depends on many factors including a community’s attachment or ownership of and dependence on forest resources; traditional knowledge of the local biophysical environment and fire usage; and absence of tenure conflict. The report identifies several options to promote community-based forest fire management in South East Asia, including analysing and compiling existing cases, adding a fire management component into existing community-based resource management projects, strengthening projects with community-based fire management components, and designing and implementing community-based forest fire management projects.

Link to publication (pdf 396 kb)

Communities in flames: Proceedings of an international conference on community involvement in fire management
Published by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand 2002

Author : Peter Moore, David Ganz, Lay Cheng Tan, Thomas Enters and Patrick B. Durst ; 2002

Link to publication (pdf 1830 kb)

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