Antara 18 Oct 10;
Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - The Environmental Board (BLH) of Riau Province said that the acreage of peat land that had been razed by fires in Bengkalis district, Riau province had reached 5,000 hectares.
"About 5,000 hectares of peat land in Bengkalis have been burned by fire," BLH head for Riau Fedrizal Labay said here on Monday.
He said that peat land fires had been taking place over the past two weeks. The widest area affected by the fire is located in Sepahat and Tanjung villages, Bukit Batu sub district, Bengkalis district.
Peat land fires have been taking place in this area every year, he said.
Kalimantan residents still burn forests for farming
Antara 17 Oct 10;
Puruk Cahu, C Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - Residents of some inlands in Central Kalimantan Province are still wishing to open farming grounds by burning land.
"This habit has become tradition and it is easier and more practical than other methods," a resident of Barito Tuhup Sub-district, Murung Raya District of Central Kalimantan, Atak said here Sunday.
According to Atak, the method did not damage the environment as there were only certain fields burned and the fire was maintained not to spread to other locations.
The area around the field should be cleaned that could prevent and halt the fire from spreading, he said, adding that the fire was lit to burn piles of woods and bushes from logs in the canter part of the field.
The field burning occurred frequently and smoke is seen everywhere in the region as what happened in the villages around Barito Tuhup Raya sub-district of Murung Raya District, he said.
The forest burning usually occurred in August, yet they happened in September and October this year too.
The residents are cultivating gogo rice, also known as tugal rice, a variety of dry-soil rice preferred by the locals because of its nice taste and good aroma.
The forest burning and moving agriculture were still conducted albeit the administration adviced not to commit such actions.
However, the residents were less aware as such deeds had become their habit.
"This has become a phenomena and the responsibility for the administration to familiarize the bad effect of field burning," Atak said, adding that if people still conducted moving agriculture, the forests in the area would be lost sooner or later.
The threat also came from companies which had forest concessions, coal mining and gold mining companies in the region.
