Campaign Appeal for Wild Forest Fires (Berbak National Park)

Zoological Society of London and 21st Century Tiger

Appeal : 

Attention from ZSL and assistance needed to raise funds for fire fighting in Berbak National Park. Local government (BKSDA/Dinas Kehutanan), the Governor of Jambi , National Park staff, community volunteers and ZSL have been for the last 2 weeks tirelessly fighting these unpredictable peat fires. Now funds are low, there are no signs of rain as yet, and the fires are still burning, threatening one of few remaining intact peatlands and tiger strongholds in Southern Sumatra.

Fires threaten Berbak National Park on 14th of September 2011

Berbak National Park, home to a crucial population of wild Sumatran tigers, has been under threat in recent weeks from fires around its edges. These fires, are thought to be started by farmers for land clearance and to lower the acidity of the peat soil. It is this peat that makes these fires so difficult to control.

Cultivation in areas of peat soils can result in the peat drying out. When dry, it becomes a high energy fuel and in the case of Berbak National Park, fuel which is in places over 10 m deep. Because of this, peat fires do not just burn like other forest fires, where trees and lianas provide most of the fuel for the fires, but the peat itself burns with the fire moving underneath the forest and deep underground making it extremely difficult to extinguish.

Underground fires are very hard to predict where the fire is moving, often fires reappearing on the surface hundreds of meters away from the original fire hotspot. The combination of these factors make peat fires one of the most difficult types of fires to combat, often resulting with them burning out of control for several months.

The Governor of Jambi has placed the area on high alert. National Park staff assisted by over 100 community fires fighting volunteers trained by the Ministry of Forestry, have been combating the fires for the last 10 days at the edges of the park. However these community teams have been hampered by the lack simple equipment such as suitable shoes, goggles, masks and camping equipment to allow them to stay on call close to the fires.

ZSL, whose project “Tackling Anti-poaching in Berbak” is funded by 21^st Century Tiger, is working with the local park authorities to monitor the situation and note that practical steps need to be taken to make sure that the situation does not become a regular event.

In 1997-98 the wild peatland fires from Sumatra and Borneo burnt for almost a year and released enough carbon into the atmosphere that it was equivalent to over a third of the world’s carbon emission for a year, directly contributing to climate change.

Tigers threatened by wild forest fires

Thursday 15 September 2011

One of last remaining populations of Sumatran tigers in Indonesia is under threat from wild forest fires. The fires started in mid-August and now surround much of the border of Berbak National Park in Sumatra, a peat swamp forest that is prime tiger habitat. There are only 400 remaining Sumatran tigers in the wild and Berbak is an important site for the species’ survival.

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Information sent to Wild Navigator by Laura D’Arcy (ZSL’s country co ordinator for Indonesia) Document reference: ZSL & 21st Century Tiger