Borneo wildfires

[NemJones]

Ive been reading on this a little bit, and they say that the annual fires are normal
But I keep seeing news articles popping up that say these ones are getting larger and worse,
Destroying more forest than usual. Does anybody know anything else about this?

Fires and Smoke in Borneo : Natural Hazards

 

[Est]

NPR has a relevant piece Indonesia's Annual Fires.

And Indonesia isn't the only place where we see these issues. Recently there's been some coverage of a similar situation in Brazil.

 

[Clue]

As the articles relate, severe El Niño events are linked to drought in Southeast Asia, and this year's could be the new most powerful on record. From a conservation standpoint, forest fires in East Kalimantan wiped out the type population of N. campanulata on Gunung Ilas Bungaan and (IIRC) swept through much of the range of N. mapuluensis in 1983. In 1997 (the worst El Niño event on record), forest fires in West Kalimantan severely impacted Gunung Kelam, the only locality for N. clipeata, as well as 25 million acres across the whole of Indonesia. The fires are also not limited to Borneo -- Sumatra is similarly affected.

 

[BigBella]

One thing sorely missing from that link, is that fires can also be linked to natural occurrences; not only to Malaysians torching the place to raise palm oil; or, to erect the latest golf courses for the Hong Kong Chinese. I saw days of lighning over Kalimantan some years ago; and it was not entirely during the "wet" monsoon season . . .

 

[NemJones]

They have been talking about that very often bella. that particular link might not, but I saw hundreds of others
mentioning it. Theyre also saying its getting worse