Coal fires in Indonesia
Introduction
The Indonesian Archipelago straddles the equator between the continents of Asia on the north and Australia Oceania on the south and lies between two oceans, the Indian to the west and the Pacific to the east. The country shares borders with Singapore, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and East Timor and is composed of more than 17 000 islands of which about 6000 are inhabited. The land area of the islands making up Indonesia amounts to 1.9 million km2. Five of the islands, Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya (New Guinea), account for most of the land area and Indonesia's 230 million inhabitants. Tropical rainforests cover much of the larger islands of this nation (Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 2002).
Following timber harvests, fire remains the cheapest tool to reduce the vegetation cover and prepare and fertilize the poor tropical soils for plantation crops. During drought periods, these fires escape causing extensive damage. Fires ravaged the Kalimantan forests during drought periods in 1982–1983, 1987, 1991 and 1994 Lennertz and Panzer, 1984, Hoffman et al., 1999.
In the prolonged drought of 1997 and 1998, smoke from fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra blanketed the entire region in haze Levine, 1999, Schindler, 1998. An area the size of Costa Rica was devastated and the lives and health of millions of people were jeopardized. The most serious smoke impacts were to Central and West Kalimantan and South Sumatra, but the haze also affected neighbors Malaysia and Singapore. In addition, these fires directly contributed to the largest annual increase in atmospheric CO2 and added up to 40% of the mean annual global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels (Page et al., 1997).
These fires were, for the most part, deliberately set to clear the forest for pulpwood, rubber, and oil palm plantations. Damage estimates based on satellite data and ground observations are that more than 5 000 000 ha burned in East Kalimantan during the 1997–1998 fires Hoffman et al., 1999, Schindler, 2000 pushing the already endangered orangutans and sun bears closer to extinction.
The portions of Kalimantan and Sumatra most affected by forest fires contain over 90% of Indonesia's coal reserves. Not only were the economic losses and ecological damage from these forest fires enormous, the fires ignited coal seams along their exposed outcrops. Unlike forest and peat fires, coal fires have persisted for decades smoldering underground unaffected by even torrential monsoon rains. In East Kalimantan, coal fires are still burning from each of the forest fire periods consuming the potentially valuable coal resources and destroying the land surface.
Locally, coal fires pose serious health and safety risks from toxic fumes and land surface collapses that destroy infrastructure. On a global basis, they contribute large quantities of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere without providing any of the benefits from energy consumption. In addition to these direct effects, coal fires remain a long-term source of ignition for new forest fires perpetuating a destructive cycle.
Section snippets
US Government's response
Responding to Indonesia's 1997–1998 fires and haze crisis, the US Government convened an inter-agency working group to develop proposals for follow-up assistance. Between 1998 and 2002, the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) provided Indonesia with the capability to take quick action on coal fires that presented threats to public health and safety, infrastructure, or the environment. OSM's project was funded by a 1.5-million US Dollars grant from the US Department of State's Southeast Asia
Indonesian coal fires
While Indonesian coal fires occur in both mined and unmined coal, the fires of greatest concern to OSM and MEMR were in unmined coal. Of the 263 coal fires investigated in Indonesia, all began along unmined coal outcrops and resulted from forest, brush or trash fires. Ignition dates and causes for each fire have been confirmed during site inspections and interviews of local residents.
Fires in unmined coal move in fits and starts because they lack the constant supplies of oxygen provided in
Indonesian Government's position at the start of the project
Although the Indonesian Government was aware of coal fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, little work was done to inventory or extinguish them. Coal fires had threatened important infrastructure before but the government chose relocation rather than fighting the fires. However, in East Kalimantan, one attempt was made to isolate a road from an encroaching coal fire and another to cover a coal fire with clay. The Indonesian Government received help from an international donor in the first attempt
Demonstration project
OSM began the assistance project with a fire suppression demonstration. It was important to start with a high visibility success so that MEMR would seriously consider taking on this new mission and to show the regional office and local government officials that coal fires could be managed and extinguished. OSM cooperated with the MEMR East Kalimantan Regional Office and selected a coal fire at km 24.1 between Balikpapan and Samarinda. One house was already compromised, two other houses were at
Environmental problems
Coal fires also threaten East Kalimantan's shrinking ecological resources in the Sungai Wain Nature Reserve and Kutai National Park. During the 1997–1998 droughts, forest fires entered the 10 000-ha primary forest of the Sungai Wain Reserve from the neighboring logging concession and small agricultural gardens around the reserve damaging approximately 5000 ha. Sungai Wain had one of the last areas of unburned primary rainforest in the Balikpapan–Samarinda area with an extremely rich biodiversity
Present condition in East Kalimantan
Coal fires continue to present a serious risk to Indonesia's ecosystems, population, and forest resources. MEMR and local governments in East Kalimantan are still working on the coal fire inventory, presently at 164, but it is far from complete. Fires on the inventory tend to be those with easy access by roads or near infrastructure. Most of the 5 million hectares burned in East Kalimantan during the 1997–1998 forest fires are far from roads or infrastructure but are underlain with coal. Very
Conclusions
Indonesia's coal fires are one of the unintended by-products of land conversion and agricultural fires. Coal fires can smolder and burn for decades remaining sources of ignition for new forest fires and probably new coal fires. Before 1998, the Indonesian Government was unaware of any practical strategy to combat these fires. OSM's program of institutional capacity building, technical assistance and training provided MEMR practical, “low tech” solutions so they could begin managing coal fires,
Acknowledgements
The OSM/MEMR Coal Fire Project was funded The US Department of State's Southeast Asia Environmental Protection Initiative through the US Agency for International Development. The authors are grateful to Ms. Robin McClellan, Science and Technology Counselor, US Embassy Jakarta for her support and encouragement during project formulation and David Heesen and Fred Pollack, USAID, Jakarta for their ideas, support and funding assistance, and Dr. Glenn Stracher, East Georgia College, and Dr. Tammy P.
References (9)
World Fact Book 2002, Indonesia
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The continuing fire threat in Southeast Asia
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