"Fires are like other things in that when they happen, everybody is concerned, if they don’t, nobody remembers them." These are the words of David Kaimowitz. Luca Tacconi mirrored these exact same words in a separate interview. Both of them are from the same organization; the Centre for International Forest Research (CIFOR). David Kaimowitz is the director general of CIFOR, while Luca Tacconi is a researcher who has published a report on the forest fires in Indonesia. The uniformity of these words ought to be imitated by the Indonesian government.

The role of "Mother Earth", as a number of life’s cultures perceive this planet to be, is divided into various parts. We in Indonesia get an equatorial archipelago with the forest layer playing its part in oxygen and water cycles. It is this part that we ought to celebrate on Earth Day this time round. For Earth Day, Sinar Harapan presents several articles on the condition of forests and the environment in Indonesia.

JAKARTA – For those who follow forestry issues in Indonesia, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) is like throwing stones and hiding your hands. The biggest issue in forestry is that of illegal logging. Arising from excess capacity of the timber industry, which could be reduced if IBRA forced debt collecting or closure rather than simply redeeming timber companies’ debts with assets sales.

SUMMARY: In an article that discusses whether aid agencies are losing interest in sustainable forest management, the Economist quotes David Kaimowitz, Director General of the Centre for International Forestry Research: The political instability of many tropical countries also makes management difficult, says David Kaimowitz, director of the Centre for International Forestry Research in Indonesia. "Well over 50% of the world’s tropical forests are in countries that have had violent conflict in the past 15 years," he points out. The world’s second-largest tropical forest is in war-ravaged Congo. "If you can’t even manage basic governance, how are you going to keep people out?". Search www.economist.com for a full version of this story

Laksamana.Net – Coinciding with the outbreak of new fires around Pontianak in West Kalimantan and Pekanbaru, Riau, a new European Commission-funded report argues better management of peat lands will help eliminate the major cause of smoke and haze in Indonesia. Author of the report, Dr. Luca Tacconi of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), says the fires are a stark reminder that governments, industry and the broader community are yet to fully address the underlying causes of smoke haze in Indonesia.

The main cause of Indonesia’s annual forest fires that blanket the archipelago and its neighbours in haze is poor peat land management, a report issued by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) said on Tuesday.

China is protecting its own trees, but has begun instead to devour Asia’s forests.

Jan. 27 issue — The ornate three-story palace just off the main road in Ruili, a boomtown on China’s southern border, is a monument to the plunder of Burma’s rain forests—and to China’s insatiable appetite for timber.

JAKARTA, Jan 22, 2003 – International aid donors led by the World Bank may, just may, put more pressure on Indonesia to reform its forestry policy. Management of Indonesia’s remaining forests is among the topics on the agenda of the 12th meeting of the 30-member Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) in Bali this week. Most donor countries, though themselves large-scale importers of timber products, have consistently slammed Indonesia’s environmental stance on sustainable resources.