When the area was forested, the peatlands remained moist, but deforestation allowed the soil to try out and become highly flammable material. This excellent video featuring scientist David Gaveau from CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research) explains how native fire-resistant Indonesian forests lands have been converted into flammable peatlands. Much of the burning region was deforested several decades ago, first for timber and then for oil palm plantations ( Purnomo, 2015). Many of the headlines describe these as forest fires, but mostly it is peatland that is burning. Since September of this year more than 120,000 fires have burned more than 1.7 million hectares ( CIFOR, 2015 Jakarta Globe, 2015a). Fires have been a recurring problem for many years, but this year they are exacerbated by drought conditions caused by a strong El NiƱo event. Recent fires in Indonesia have been making headlines around the world and raising concerns about their impacts on wildlife, global carbon emissions and health problems for local people.
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