FOREST FIRE PREVENTION AND CONTROL PROJECT

FIRE MANAGEMENT EXPERT FINAL REPORT

October 2001

Bert H. Borger

Produced through bilateral cooperation between GOVERNMENT OF INDONESIA EUROPEAN UNION MINISTRY OF FORESTRY EUROPEAN COMMISSION

NATURAL RESOURCES INTERNATIONAL LIMITED BCEOM

CIRAD FORET SCOT CONSEIL

FINANCING MEMORANDUM B7-5041/I/1992/12 (ALA/92/42) CONTRACT NUMBER IDN/B7-5041/92/644-01

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Acknowledgements Many individuals have assisted me to carry out the fire management tasks prescribed in the Terms of Reference. To try to individually name everyone puts me in great peril of missing out someone important somewhere; a risk worth taking considering the level of assistance I’ve received. If inadvertently you are missed of the list please accept my unreserved apology. I’d like to thank and acknowledge the following people: • All the staff at FFPCP; especially Ir. A Ferdinand Lubis (Didi) for his full support with

all the tasks and astute guidance and assistance at many meetings and training courses; also project leader Rod Bowen for his good-humoured editing of all my documents; and Pak Kholic for driving me safely all over Sumatra.

• The staff at Dinas Kehutanan Propinsi Sumatera Selatan, especially Ir. H Syaiful Ramadhan for his unstinting support of FFPCP, and Ir. Hasanuddin and Ir. Syafrul for accompanying me on many trips into the back of beyond.

• Liam Fogarty and Pak Widodo from the Berau Forest Management Project for the shared ideas and developments and for taking up some tasks which FFPCP was unable to complete.

• Marc Nicolas from the South Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project for freely sharing his knowledge of fire control in South Sumatra with me.

• Bradford Sanders, Pak Satya, Pak Asli and Pak Junaidi of the Integrated Forest Fire Management Project for cooperating on resource development.

• Olle Wennstrom of the Haze Prevention Group.

Figure 1: The extended FFPCP team

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Distribution:

• Consortium • EC Representation Jakarta • Ir. H Syaiful Ramadham, Kepala, Dinas Kehutanan Propinsi Sumatera Selatan • Ir. Hasanuddin, Dinas Kehutanan Propinsi Sumatera Selatan • Ir. Djoko Setijono, Directorate of Forest Fire Control • Forest Liaison Bureau • Co-Directors, Berau Forest Management Project • Mr L.Fogarty, Berau Forest Management Project • Co-Directors, South and Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project • Mr. M. Nicolas, South and Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project • Mr. H Dotzauer, Project Leader Integrated Forest Fire Management Project,

Samarinda • Mr. B. Sanders, Integrated Forest Fire Management Project, Samarinda • Project Leader, JICA Forest Fire Prevention Management Project • Olle Wennstrom, Haze Prevention Group

This report was prepared with financial assistance from the Commission of the European Communities. The views expressed herein are those of the project and do not represent any official view of the Commission.

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RINGKASAN

Laporan ini menberikan gambaran kegiatan secara menyeluruh, temuan dan rekomendasi dari Tenaga Ahli Pengelolaan Kebakaran berdasarkan dari hasil kerja yang dilakukan selama delapan bulan masa kontraknya mulai Februari sampai dengan Oktober 2001. Kegiatan Sebuah program kerja dibuat dengan tujuan merevitalisasi tugas-tugas pokok, meningkatkan pengetahuan staff pendamping mengenai kebakaran dan kemudian menghasilkan nara sumber pelatihan pengendalian kebakaran. Pegawai pendamping dari Kehutanan dan staff proyek setempat yang sepenuhnya terlibat dalam pekerjaan tersebut yang sangat terlatih dan terarah memungkinkan mereka untuk mengambil alih dan meneruskan banyak tugas-tugas rutin yang harus dilakukan. Program kerja tersebut dikoordinasikan dengan tenaga-tenaga ahli asing dari FFPCP dalam bidang pendeteksian kebakaran dan pembangunan masyarakat terpencil. Aspek khusus dari pekerjaan ini dikembangkan dan dilanjutkan bersama-sama dengan staf dari proyek-proyek donor lainnya. Berikut ini adalah kegiatan-kegiatan yang dilakukan untuk mendukung tujuan tersebut. 1. Pertemuan-pertemuan dilakukan baik dengan staf Departemen Kehutanan di pusat

maupun staff pemerintah daerah di tiap Kabupaten di propinsi Sumatera Selatan untuk menyamakan pemahaman mengenai kebutuhan yang paling penting dalam pengendalian kebakaran dan menjelaskan proposal mengenai SSFFMP.

2. Kunjungan lapangan dilakukan ke Kabupaten-Kabupaten di Propinsi Sumatera Selatan untuk mengetahui status sistem pengendalian kebakaran di beberapa daerah dan untuk meninjau relevansi, kesiapan staff dan peralatan pengendalian kebakaran.

3. Perjalanan studi antar propinsi dilakukan untuk memungkinkan FFPCP dan staff pendmpingnya menyamakan pemahaman mengenai skala dan efektivitas program-program pengendalian kebakaran yang dilakukan oleh tiga proyek donor lainnya di Indonesia.

4. Usulan-usulan untuk meningkatkan pengendalian kebakaran di Indonesia didiskusikan dengan para manejer pengendalian kebakaran dan sebuah laporan dipersiapkan berdasarkan diskusi tersebut dan hasil observasi. Usulan tersebut dipresentasikan kepada Komisi Eropa di Jakarta dan diterima untuk tindak lanjut.

5. Sebuah proses untuk menyiapkan kader Pelatihan kebakaran dan untuk menyediakan asistensi secara berkelanjutan bagi kader-kader tersebut, hal ini dilaksanakan dengan kerjasama dari Dinas Kehutanan propinsi Sumatera Selatan. Pekerjaan tersebut termasuk menghasilkan sebuah rencana proyek, penyediaan materi kursus, pelaksanaan kursus lima hari dan membentuk jaringan untuk mendukung, mendorong dan memotivasi para peserta pelatihan pengendalian kebakaran yang baru. Ketiga puluh peserta pelatihan berasal dari badan-badan pemerintah, perusahaan swasta dan proyek-proyek donor menyelesaikan pelatihan dengan sukses.

6. Sebuah paket untuk pelatihan tingkat manajerial dibuat dengan kerjasama dengan Proyek Pengendalian Kebakaran Hutan yang Terintegradi yang didanai oleh GTZ

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7. Dukungan diberikan untuk proyek Unit Manajemen Leuser yang didanai oleh Uni Eropa untuk melaksanakan kursus pengendalian kebakaran. Pembuatan sebuah kurikulum, materi kursus dihasilkan dan kursus dilaksanakan.

8. Dibuat sebuah proses penilaian untuk mengidentifikasikan kelemahan sistem pengendalian kebakaran dan untuk membentuk kebutuhan dasar peningkatan organisasi. Proses tersebut termasuk menghasilkan buku kerja mengenai panduan prosedur dan formulir.

9. Strategi pelaksanaan peralatan kebakaran oleh SSFFMP dihasilkan, dan sebagai pendukung, dibuat penilaian mengenai tipe dan kualitas peralatan kebakaran yang dapat dibuat atau dibeli didalam negeri.

10. Sebuah latihan simulasi kebakaran dibuat dan dilaksanakan sebagai ujian untuk kemampuan komando dan pengendalian kebkaaran di tingkat propinsi. Latihan ini dilaksanakan bekerjasama dengan Dinas Kehutanan dan sudah diitegrasikan dan dilaksanakan berkelanjutan dengan latihan simulasi komando kebkaran nasional yang dilaksanakan di Jakarta dengan bantuan dari US Forest Service. Simulasi ini memungkinkan semua badan-badan pemerintah di Sumatera Selatan untuk mencoba melaksanakan upaya-upaya koordinasi untuk memadamkan kebakaran yang besar.

11. Iklim di Sumatera Selatan dianalisa untuk menyediakan data dasar untuk memperkirakan frekuensi dan hebatnya kekeringan dengan konsekuensinya berupa kebkaaran yang besar.

12. Pengawasan kekeringan untuk pantai timur propinsi Sumatera Selatan dilanjutkan dengan menggunakan Indeks Kekeringan Keetch Byram.

13. Sebuah website baru dibuat dan dibangun untuk memberikan kemudahan untuk mengetahui publikasi-publikasi dari proyek tersebut, lokasi-lokasi kebakran di Sumatera setiap hari, indeks kekeringan, cuaca, data el Nino dan berita dan kegiatan dari proyek-proyek lain.

Temuan • Kebakaran bentang alam, kejadian kebakaran besar dan musim kebakaran yang parah

akan terus terjadi. • Kekeringan timbul rata-rata sekali setiap tiga tahun, dengan kekeringan yang hebat

rata-rata sekali setiap sepuluh tahun. • Penggunaan api untuk tujuan pengelolaan lahan seperti pembersihan lahan, membuka

jalan, pengurangan bahan bakar dan memusnahkan sampah sudah menyebar luas. • Petani menggunakan api dengan efektif tanpa menyebabkan asap atau masalah

kebakaran pada tahun-tahun basah. Bagaimanapun juga sebagian dari pembakaran tersebut akan lepas kontrol selama musim kering.

• Api yang membakar di lahan gambutlah yang menyebabkan sebagian besar masalah asap dan kabut.

• Perubahan yang sangat pesat dalam penutupan vegetasi di Sumatera Selatan selama 20 tahun terakhir – dari hutan primer senjadi padang rumput/alang-alang – telah menghasilkan lebjh banyak lingkungan rawan kebakaran.

• Tak dapat dipercaya bahwa upaya pemadaman kebakaran di daerah terpencil muncul dalam jangka pendek hingga menegah baik oleh badan-badan pemerintah maupun perusahaan-perusahaan swasta yang merasa aset –aset mereka yang mempunyai nilai ekonomi berada dalam bahaya.

• Keduanya, baik faktoir langsung maupun tak langsung sangat berpengaruh pada jumlah dan kualitas kebakaran yang terjdi si Sumatera Selatan. Usaha untuk lebih memyederhanakan akan menghalangi usaha pengendalian kebakaran yang sesuai

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• Sebab-sebab langsung kebakaran sudah siap diteliti: hal ini termasuk, pembakaran untuk pembersihan lahan, penggunaan api untuk pembaukaan jalan di daerah dengan vegetasi yang rapat, usaha pengurangan bahan bakar sepanjang jalan dan sekitar pemukiman, kebakaran yang terjadi dari kegiatan rumah tangga, dan penyiapan lahan untuk penanaman padi.

• Sebab-sebab tak langsung adalah kegiatan yang menyebabkan pembentukan bentang alam rawan kebakaran melalui praktek-praktek penggunaan lahan yang tidak sesuai, kebijakan dan perencanaan yang tidak memadai yang tidak mengetahui dampak dari pengelolaan lahan dalam peningkatan kebakaran baik dalam kesempatan dan kualitas kebakaran.

• Faktor-faktor yang memperburuh masalah kebakaran termasuk: praktek pemanenan hasil hutan, pembersihan lahan, transmigrasi, kekeringan yang terjadi, konflik alokasi lahan, peningkatan akses, pengeringan rawa dan penebangan liar. Semua itu menyebabkan peningkatan kerawanan kebakaran pada bentang alam.

• Ketepatan penentuan penyebab kebakaran untuk daerah yang berbeda merupakan syarat penting sebelum usaha pencegahan kebakaran yang efektif dilaksanakan.

• Daerah rawa adalah merupakan daerah yang paling mungkin mengalami kebakaran yang besar, dan hal ini sepertinya akan terjadi meskipun dalam musim agak kering. Kebakaran di daerah rawa dan/atau tanah gambut secara teknis sangatlah sulit, meskipun tidak mungkin untuk dipadamkan, dan lokasi yang terpencil menambah masalah-masalah logistik. Pendeteksian dini dan tindakan yang cepat dan agresif adalah kunci untuk mengurangi beban tugas pemadaman – dan untuk menjaga arel yang terbakar dan asap yang dihasilkan , seminimum mungkin.

• Hutan tanaman sangat beresiko terhadap kebakaran yang besar dan sangat merusak selama musim kering.

• Rata-rata tingkat penyebaran kebakaran di Sumatera Selatan adalah rendah sampai sedang – seperti yang ditunjukkan oleh sebuah penilaian mengenai bahan bakar dan cuaca. Bagaimanapun juga intensitas kebakaran yang parah dapat terjadi di lahan gambut yang ditumbuhi alang-alang.

• Sistem komando dan pengendalian yang efektif untuk pengendalian kebakaran tingkat lapangan tidak tersedia di Suamtera Selatan.

• Di propinsi staff terlatih dan peralatan yang ada sangat tidak mencukupi untuk menghadapi kebakaran yang akan terjadi selama kekeringan panjang yang akan datang.

• Informasi dan sistem kebakaran yang saling berhubungan sangat penting dalam pengendalian kebakaran secara efektif tidak dibangun sepenuhnya, sebagai contoh, sistem tingkat resiko kebakaran, sistem komunikasi, sistem deteksi kebakaran, penyebaran sumber-sumber dan catatan kebakaran.

Rekomendasi • Propinsi harus dibagi dalam areal-areal dengan tanggungjawab terhadap kebakaran

untuk mengidentifikasi badan pemerintah / perusahaan yang mana yang dapat dipertanggungjawabkan untuk mengelola areal yang mana. Semua lahan harus masuk dalam zonasi.

• Kegiatan pengendalian kebakaran SSFFMP dalam jangka pendek haruis difokuskan pada Kabupaten OKI dan MUBA.

• Para pihak, pada tingkat perusahaan, pemerintah, LSM dan masyarakat harus diidentifikasi dan kerjasama harus dibangun dengan SSFFMP.

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• Kerjasama antara Pejabat Kabupaten dan SSFFMP harus dibentuk; rencana kerjasama tersebut merupakan kepentingan utama dan akan memerlukan komitmen sumber-sumber pembiayaan dan tenaga dari para pihak ditingkat kabupaten.

• Pusat Pengendalian Kebakaran Propinsi harus dibentuk untuk: 1. Membuat rencana, strategi dan kebijakan pengendalian kebakaran 2. Membuat Kode Praktek Pengendalian Kebakaran (KPPK) 3. Melaksanakan audit untuk melihat kesesuaian dengan peraturan dan kode praktek

pengendalian kebakaran (KPPK) 4. Mengawasi dan menyediakan saran untuk para pihak tentang prediksi kekeringan. 5. Mengawasi bahaya kebakaran. 6. Mengawasi terjadinya kebakaran dan tindakan yang diambil. 7. Menyelenggarakan kursus-kursus pelatian. 8. Menyelenggarakan pelatihan pengendalian kebakaran lanjutan 9. Penempatan keterlibatan para pihak. 10. Menyediakan pembiayaan untuk pemadaman kebakaran. 11. Menyediakan masukan dan arahan untuk perencana ditingkat propinsi dan kabupaten. 12. Menuntut perusahaan-perusahaan yang melanggar hukum penggunaan api. 13. Bekerjasama dengan dan menyediakan masukan pada Departemen Kehutanan

Direktorat Penanggulangan Kebakaran Hutan. 14. Memberikan prioritas langsung dan khusus pada penelitian mengenai kebakaran. 15. Mengadakan peralatan kebakaran setempat yang sesuai dan menyediakan bantuan dana

untuk pengadaan peralatan tersebut. 16. Membuat dan mengawasi pusat peralatan kebakaran di propinsi

• Kelompok Koordinasi Kebakaran Kabupaten perlu ditingkatkan dimana pihak-pihak

terkait harus bekerjasama dan berkoordinasi tentang kegiatan pengelolaan kebakaran • Jaringan kerja pelatihan kebakaran hars terus didukung. • Staf pengendalian kebakaran harus diberi kesempatan untuk bekerja dalam organisasi

pengendalian kebakaran di negara-negara lain. • Perjalanan studi pengendalian kebakaran untuk para pihak inti/kunci dan para

pengambil keputusan harus diatur untuk memungkinkan mereka mempelajari bagaimana pengendalian kebakaran itu diawasi dan siatur dineragar-negara lain.

• Program pertukaran pegawai kebakaran harus dimulai dengan negara-negara tetangga (Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Brunai)

• Peta yang diperlukan untuk pengendalian dan pemadaman kebakaran harus terus diadakan atau dibuat.

• Sistem Pengendalian Kebakaran Satelit NOAA harus terus didukung; Sistem ini merupakan hal yang penting dalam hal pengelolaan/ manajemen kebakaran di propinsi Sumatera Selatan sampai tingkat pendeteksian kebakaran setempat efektif dan sistem pelaporan menjadi berfungsi. Hal ini juga merupakan instrumen yang penting untuk memonitor kebakaran diseluruh Sumatera.

• Membentuk Kode Praktek Pengenalian Kebakaran yang menentukan standar minimum yang harus dipenuhi oleh penguasa dan pengelola lahan dalam skala besar.

• Membuat dan melaksanakan sistem tingkat bahaya kebakaran yang komprehensif, tingkat kesiapan dan prosedur standar operasional yang didasarkan pada tingkat bahaya kebakaran.

• Merancang strategi pencegahan kebakaran tingkat propinsi yang bertujuan untuk meminimalkan kebakaran yang dapat dicegah.

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• Membuat sistem peta dasar yang mengidentifikasikan areal dengan bencana (perilaku api yang berpotensi) dan resiko (pengapian untuk keperluan rumah tangga) kebakaran tinggi.

• Bekerja dengan lembaga-lembaga pemerintahan ditingkat kebupaten untuk membuat dan melaksanakan sistem perijinan dalam penggunaan api untuk pembersihan lahan skala komersial. Pelatihan harus diberikan kepada lembaga-lembaga pemerintahan dalam perencanaan kebakaran terkendali dan prosedur pemberian ijin.

• Melanjutkan dan memperluas program pendidikan lingkungan dengan tujuan perubahan praktek penggunaan lahan melalui penyadaran dan pengetahuan.

• Membuat sistem investigasi penyebab kebakaran dan membuat catatan terjadinya kebakaran secara terperinci.

• Tujuan untuk mempengaruhi kebijakan dan rencana tata guna lahan adalah untuk merefleksikan dan menggunakan prinsip-prinsip pengendalian kebakaran.

• Pengendalian dan pelarangan kegiatan yang dapat menyebabkan kebakaran; pengendalian ini harus berdasarkan pada tingkat bahaya kebakaran; orang yang terkena dampak pengendalian tersebut harus mendapat pendidikan lebih lanjut mengenai penanganannya.

• Melakukan penelitian untuk menentukan indikator-indikator kekeringan yang akan datang, sebagai tambahan yang yang berdasarkan pada prediksi ENSO.

• Menyiapkan Rencana Zona Aksi Pemadaman Kebakaran untuk areal-areal rawan kebakaran; rencana ini harus memuat secara terperinci mengenai akses, aset, sumber-sumber pemadaman dan langkah-langkah yang harus diambil oleh lembaga-lembaga terkait dengan kebakaran.

• Mempromosikan Nota Kesepakatan antara organisasi-organisasi dengan penanggungjawab pemadaman kebakaran.

• Merancang dan mempromosikan standar kursus pelatihan pengendalian kebakaran untuk berbagai tingkat kemampuan.

• Melaksanakan simulasi komando dan pengendalian kebakaran, dimana pada ilustrasi pertama harus berdasr pada pengalaman lapangan namun lulus dengan pengalaman untuk simulasi berbagai tingkatan.

• Menggunakan strategi peralatan kebakaran dan menyediakan beberapa peralatan kepada para pihak yang sesuai.

• Membangun sistem pendeteksi kebakaran yang dapat digunakan untuk mendeteksi secara pasif (laporan publik) dan aktif (rencana patroli, pengawasan dan satelit NOAA). Usaha pendeteksian harus ditingkatkan pada areal-areal rawan kebakaran pada waktu kekeringan.

• Membangun sistem komando dan pengendalian tingkat propinsi untuk membuat standarisasi pengendalian kebakaran.

• Membangun dan kemudian secara berkala memperbaharui, rencana aksi pengendalian kebakaran pada tingkat kabupaten dan penguasa lahan.

• Membangun dan melaksanakan prosedur standar operasional yang menjadi dasar aksi yang dilakukan pada waktu kebakaran dan itu termasuk tingkatan aksi yang berdasarkan bahaya kebakaran.

FFPCP secara efektif sudah mengisi kekosongan informasi mengenai dimana, kapan dan bagaimana kebakaran terjadi di Sumatera Selatan. Informasi dan pelajaran ini sekarang harus menjadi dasar kerjasama antara para pihak setempat dan para pengambil keputusan dan SSFFMP untuk melaksanakan pengendalian kebakaran yang komprehensif dan terintegrasi di tingkat propinsi.

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Summary This report gives details of the activities, findings and recommendations of the Fire Management Expert and is based on work carried out during an eight-months contract from February to October 2001. Activities A work programme was designed with the objective of revitalising essential tasks, increasing the ‘fire knowledge’ of counterpart staff and of producing fire management training resources. Counterpart Forestry Officers and local project staff were fully involved in the work and were trained and supervised to allow them to take over and progress many of the routine tasks. The work programme was coordinated with FFPCP expatriate experts in remote fire detection and rural development. Specific aspects of the work were developed and carried out jointly with staff from other donor-funded projects. The following activities were undertaken in support of the objective.

1. Meetings were held with both Ministry of Forestry staff at national level and with local government staff in each District in South Sumatra province to gain an understanding of the most urgent fire management needs and explain the proposal for SSFFMP.

2. Field visits were made to the Districts in South Sumatra to assess the status of fire management systems in the various areas and to inspect the relevance and preparedness of fire management staff and equipment.

3. An inter-provincial study trip was made to allow FFPCP and counterpart staff to gain an understanding of the range and effectiveness of the fire management programmes carried out by three other donor-funded project in Indonesia.

4. Proposals to improve fire management in Indonesia were discussed with other fire managers and a report prepared based on these discussions and on observation. These proposals were presented to, and accepted by, the European Commission in Jakarta for further action.

5. A process to establish a cadre of Fire Trainers and to provide ongoing assistance to the cadre was designed and implemented in partnership with Dinas Kehutanan Propinsi Sumatera Selatan. The work involved the production of a project plan, obtaining course material, running a five-day course and establishing a network to support, encourage and motivate the new fire trainers. Thirty trainers from government agencies, private companies and donor-funded projects completed the course successfully.

6. A package for crewboss-level training was developed cooperatively with the GTZ Integrated Forest Fire Management Project.

7. Support was given to the EU Leuser Management Unit to run a fire management course. A curriculum was developed, course material produced and the course presented.

8. An assessment process to identify fire management weaknesses and to form the basis of organisational improvement was designed. This included the production of a workbook of procedural guidelines and forms.

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9. A fire equipment strategy for implementation by SSFFMP was produced, and, in support of this, the type and quality of fire equipment that can be made or bought locally was assessed.

10. A wildfire simulation exercise was designed and run to test the fire command and control capability at provincial level. This exercise was run jointly with Dinas Kehutanan and was integrated and run simultaneously with a national fire command simulation exercise carried out in Jakarta with the assistance of the US Forest Service. The simulation allowed all government agencies in South Sumatra to ‘trial run’ the coordination of efforts to suppress a large wildfire.

11. The climate of South Sumatra was analysed to provide baseline data on which to predict the frequency and severity of droughts with their consequent large wildfires.

12. Drought monitoring for the east coast of South Sumatra province was continued using the Keetch Byram Drought Index.

13. A new project website was designed and built to give easy access to project publications, daily fire locations in Sumatra, Drought Index, weather, el Nino data and other project news and activities.

Findings

• Landscape fires, ‘mega-fire’ events and extreme fire seasons will continue to occur. • Droughts occur on average one out of three years, with severe droughts on average

in one out of ten years. • The use of fire for land management purposes such as land clearing, improving

access, fuel reduction and rubbish removal is widespread. • Smallholders use fire effectively without causing smoke or wildfire problems in non-

drought years. However some of these fires escape control during droughts. • Fires that burn in the peat swamps are the cause of most of the smoke and haze

problems. • Widespread changes in vegetation cover in South Sumatra over the past 20 years –

from primary forest to sedge/grass/fern/scrublands – have resulted in a more fire-prone environment.

• Fire suppression in remote areas is unlikely to occur in the short to medium term as neither government agencies nor private companies perceive assets of economic value to be under threat.

• Both direct and indirect factors are contribute to the number and severity of wildfires that occur in South Sumatra. Attempts to over-simplify will hinder appropriate fire management.

• The direct causes of fires are readily observed: these include, land clearing burns, fires to improve access in areas of dense vegetation, fuel reduction along roads and around dwellings, escaped fires from legitimate livelihood activities, and the preparation of land for sonor rice.

• The indirect causes of fires are those that lead to the creation of a fire-prone landscape through inappropriate land-use practices; inadequate policies and plans that do not recognise the impact of land management on fire increase both the probability and the severity of wildfires.

• Factors that have increased the fire problem include: forest harvesting practices, land clearing, transmigration, occurrence of droughts, land allocation conflicts, improved access, swamp drainage and illegal logging. These all lead to an increase in the fire proneness of the landscape.

• The accurate determination of fire causes for distinct areas is an essential requirement before effective fire prevention can be carried out.

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• The swamp areas are the most probable location for large fires, and these are likely to occur even during moderate droughts. Fires in swamp areas and/or on peat soils are technically difficult, although not impossible to suppress, and the remoteness of these locations adds logistical problems. Early detection and prompt and aggressive initial attack are the keys to reducing the task of suppression – and to keeping the area burnt, and the smoke produced, to a minimum.

• Plantation forests are at risk of large and damaging wildfires during droughts. • Fire spread rates are expected to be generally low to moderate in South Sumatra – as

shown by an assessment of fuel and weather conditions. However extreme fire intensities are likely in the degraded swamp scrublands.

• An effective command and control system for field level fire control does not exist in South Sumatra.

• Insufficient trained staff and fire equipment are presently available in the province to deal with fires that will be experienced during the next severe drought.

• The fire information and associated systems that are essential to manage fires effectively are not well developed, e.g. fire danger rating system, communication systems, fire detection, resource dispatch and fire records.

Recommendations

• The province must be zoned into areas of fire responsibility to identify which government agency / company is accountable for the management of which areas. All land must be included in the zoning.

• SSFFMP fire management activities in the short term should concentrate on the Districts of OKI and MUBA.

• Stakeholders, at the company, government, NGO and community level should be identified and partnerships developed with SSFFMP.

• Partnerships between the District authorities and SSFFMP must be formed; these cooperative arrangements are of prime importance and will require the District stakeholders to commit budget and staff resources.

• A Provincial Fire Management Centre should be established to: 1. Develop fire policies, strategies and plans. 2. Develop a Fire Management Code of Practice (FMCOP). 3. Undertake fire management audits to check compliance with legislation and

FMCOP. 4. Monitor and provide advise to stakeholders on drought predictions. 5. Monitoring fire danger. 6. Monitor fire occurrence and response. 7. Develop training courses. 8. Deliver advanced fire training. 9. Coordinate stakeholder involvement. 10. Provide fire suppression funding. 11. Provide input and direction to Provincial and District planners. 12. Prosecute companies that break fire laws. 13. Work with and provide input to MOF - Directorate of Forest Fire Control. 14. Direct and allocate priorities to fire research. 15. Develop locally appropriate fire equipment and provide fire equipment grants. 16. Establish and control a Provincial Fire Equipment Centre.

• District Fire Coordination Groups need to be established where stakeholders cooperate and coordinate fire management activities.

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• The fire trainers network should continue to be supported. • Fire management staff should be provided with opportunities to work in fire

management organisations in other countries. • Fire management study trips for key stakeholders and decision makers should be

organised to allow them to examine the way fire management is controlled and organised in other countries.

• Fire Officer exchange programmes should be started with neighbouring nations (Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei).

• Maps that are useful for fire management and fire suppression should continue to be obtained or produced.

• The NOAA satellite fire monitoring system must continue to be supported; the system will remain an essential tool in fire management in South Sumatra until effective local level fire detection and incident reporting systems become functional. It is also an important instrument to monitor fire occurrence throughout Sumatra.

• Establish a Fire Management Code of Practice that sets-out the minimum standards to which large landholders and land administrators must adhere.

• Develop and implement a comprehensive Fire Danger Rating System, readiness levels and standard operating procedures based on the fire danger levels.

• Design a Provincial fire prevention strategy that aims to minimise the incidence of preventable wildfires.

• Develop a map-based system that identifies areas of high fire hazard (potential fire behaviour) and risk (likelihood of ignition).

• Work with government agencies at the District level to develop and implement a permit system to control commercial-scale land clearing fires. Training should be given to government agencies on the planning of controlled burns and the procedures for the issuance of permits.

• Continue and expand the environmental education programme with the aim of changing fire-use practices through awareness and knowledge.

• Establish a system to investigate the causes of fire and to record the details of fire incidents.

• Aim to influence land-use plans and policies to reflect and incorporate the principles of fire management.

• Control and restrict activities that may lead to wildfires; these controls should be based on fire danger levels; people affected by the controls must be educate in advance of enforcement.

• Carry our research to determine indicators of impending drought, in addition to those based on ENSO forecasting.

• Prepare Suppression Response Zone Plans for fire prone areas; these must detail access, assets, suppression resources and the steps to be taken by the concerned agency in the event of a fire.

• Promote the establishment of Memorandums of Understanding between organisations with fire suppression responsibilities.

• Design and promote standard fire training courses for a range of competencies. • Carry out fire command and control simulations; these in the first instance should be

field based but graduate, with experience, to multi-level simulations. • Adopt a fire equipment strategy and provide some equipment to appropriate

stakeholders. • Develop a fire detection system that makes use of passive (public reporting) and

active (scheduled patrols, lookouts and NOAA satellite) detection. Detection efforts should increase in fire-prone areas in times of drought.

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• Develop a provincial command and control system to standardise control at wildfires.

• Develop and then regularly update, fire action plans at the District and landholder levels.

• Develop and implement standard operating procedures that lay down the response to wildfires and that include fire-danger-based response levels.

FFPCP has effectively filled an information vacuum about where, when and why fires occur in South Sumatra. This information and the lessons learned must now form the basis of a partnership between local stakeholders and decision makers and SSFFMP to implement comprehensive and integrated fire management in the province.

Figure 2: Childs drawing made as part of the FFPCP fire prevention programme.

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Abbreviations and Acronyms ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nation BAKORNAS BP Badan Koordinasi Nasional (National Co-ordination Agency) BFMP Berau Forest Fire Management Project BMG Agency for Meteorological and Geophysics Bupati Head of District CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CIFOR International Center for Forestry Research EC European Commission EU European Union FDRS Fire Danger Rating System FFPCP Forest Fire Prevention and Control Project FFPMP Forest Fire Prevention Management Project FLB Forest Liaison Bureau FME Fire Management Expert GIS Geographic Information System GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit [German

Technical Cooperation] HPH Hak Pengusahaan Hutan [Forest Concession Right] HPHTI Hak Pengusahaan Hutan Tanaman Industri [Forest Concession Right

and Industrial Tree Estate or Utilization Right for Industrial Forest Plantation]

IFFM Integrated Forest Fire Management Ir. Insinyur (Engineer) JICA Japanese International Cooperation Agency NGO Non-Government Organisation PEMDA Provincial Government PUSDALKARHUTLA Pusat Pengendalian dan Kebakaran Hutan dan Lahan (Forest and

Land Fire Prevention Centre) SATKORLAK Satuan Koordinasi Pelaksana (Implementation C-ordination Unit) SCKPFP South Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project SH Sarjana Hukum SSFFMP South Sumatra Forest Fire Management Project ToR Term of Reference ToT Training of Trainers

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i Disclaimer ii Ringkasan iii Summary viii Abbreviation and Acronyms xiii Table of Contents xiv 1. Introduction 1 2. Counterpart Staff 2 3. FFPCP Staff Assistance 3 4. Activities 4 4.1 Field Inspections 4 4.2 Inter-provincial fire management study trip 4 4.3 Close cooperation with other fire managers 5 4.4 National Proposal 6 4.5 Training resource development for Crewboss training 6 4.6 Training of Fire Fighters 7 4.7 Fire management training 7 4.8 Fire simulation 8 4.9 Website redevelopment and project publications 8 4.10 Drought Index 9 4.11 Assessment of climate of South Sumatra 9 4.12 Fire Management Assessment Workbook 10 4.13 Photo Library 10 5. Fire equipment 11 5.1 Equipment provided by FFPCP 11 5.2 Fire suppression principles to guide equipment decisions 12 5.3 A fire equipment strategy for South Sumatra 13 Procurement 13 Storage 14 Maintenance 15 Administration 15 Fire equipment conclusion 16 6. General Fire Management Findings 17 6.1 General 17 6.2 Fire Causes 17 6.3 Suppression 18 6.4 Administration 19

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7. Recommendations for SSFFMP 20 7.1 General 20 7.2 Fire Management Structure 20 7.3 Local Fire Management Staff Development 21 7.4 Tools and System 21 7.5 Fire Prevention 22 7.6 Preparedness 22 7.7 Suppression 23 7.8 Recovery 23 Appendix A. Terms of Reference 24 Appendix B. Calender of events, visits, visitors and meetings 26 Appendix C. Field inspections 30 Appendix D. Inter-provincial fire management study trip 37 Appendix E. National proposal 43 Appendix F. Crewboss course: project plan and curriculum 45 Appendix G. Training of trainers: project plan 49 Appendix H. Fire management training 51 Appendix I. Fire simulation 53 Appendix J. Climate Assessment and Drought 55 Appendix K. Fire Management Assessment Workbook 58

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1. INTRODUCTION The Fire Management Expert position at the Forest Fire Prevention and Control Project had been vacant since May 1999, a period of 21 months. This had resulted in a severe loss of momentum in fire management activities undertaken or supported by the project, no training, no resource development and no support for previously established fire centres. This demanded a reassessment of activities - both successful and unsuccessful - be carried out in a very tight timeframe, and that the information be used to allocate priorities to optimally use the remaining project period. The process was further complicated by the approval of a follow-on EU fire project, to start in 2002 in Palembang, which made it essential that all work was also designed to provide a solid foundation for the new project. The responsibilities and outputs stated in the Terms of Reference (attached as Appendix A) can be summarised as:

1. Become familiar with the work of FFPCP. 2. Become familiar with activities carried out under the RETA programme. 3. Give support to HPH and HTI forestry organisations. 4. Develop and implement fire training programmes. 5. Assist with fire suppression in the field. 6. Recover lost fire management momentum. 7. Motivate stakeholders to recognise the need for additional training in fire prevention

and control. 8. Prepare recommendations for further work on fire prevention and control for the

next phase. 9. Prepare recommendations for equipment purchases under the next phase 10. Prepare a report on the major findings, conclusions and recommendations arising

from the work of FFPCP on fire prevention and control from 1996 to 2001 to Directorate of Forest Fire Control.

11. Prepare an assignment activity report. The period of employment was eight months, from 15 February to 15 October 2001. This report will detail the activities carried out by the Fire Management Expert in support of the Terms of Reference and new initiatives to aid fire management and prepare the ground for the South Sumatra Forest Fire Management Project (SSFFMP). The specific reports requested under points 8 and 9 above are included in this report. The major findings, conclusions and recommendations arising from the work of FFPCP are contained in the series of reports produced and published since 1999. The key points of these reports have been summarised and compiled into a Summary Report – available in both English and Bahasa Indonesia; the full text of all the reports accompanies the Summary Report on CD-ROM.

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2. COUNTERPART STAFF Dinas Kehutanan Propinsi Sumatera Selatan was requested on 20 February 2001 to supply counterpart staff to accompany the Fire Management Expert (FME). An official response was received from Kepala Dinas Ir. Syaiful Ramadhan MM on 28 February 2001 listing four counterpart officers, one for each priority district in South Sumatra. The counterpart officers are: Hamzah Fatmawinata for the Ogan Komering Ilir district Ir. Hasanuddin for the Muara Enim district Hamid SH for the Lahat district Syafrul Yunardy, S Hut for the Musi Banyuasin district The most active and supportive counterpart officer was Ir. Hasanuddin, with Ir. Syafrul also accompanying FME Borger on a number of field trips. Ir. Hasanuddin has been involved with the project since its inception and has proved to be a knowledgeable counterpart, receptive to the aims of the project. Ir. Syafrul can also be recommended for his knowledge and assistance to the project. None of the counterpart staff received any formal training during FME Borger’s contract period, however on the job instruction, discussions and field trips proved useful to impart fire management knowledge and skills.

Figure 3: Dinas Kehutanan counterpart officer Ir. Hasanuddin displaying firefighter overalls.

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3. FFPCP STAFF ASSISTANCE The FME was assisted in the day-to-day activities by Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis, Fire Management Data Officer. Ir. Lubis accompanied FME Borger on most field trips, conferences and inspections and carried out a broad and varied range of activities in support of the FME duties. The successful completion of the FME assignment can be attributed to the conscientious and highly capable assistance and guidance received from Ir. Lubis.

Figure 4: Ir. Ferdinand Lubis (centre of photo, facing camera) while on an inspection of Musi Hutan Persada.

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4. ACTIVITIES The activities undertaken were a combination of those directly prescribed by the ToR and activities undertaken on initiative and based on professional knowledge and fire management experience. Some activities were carried out in cooperation with other fire managers or donor-funded fire projects in Indonesia. Several initiative were commenced or promoted that will require the efforts of other agencies and/or projects to complete. This was seen as inevitable owing to both the short nature of the FME assignment and the closing down of FFPCP. Appendix B contains a calendar of events, visits, visitors and meetings.

4.1 Field Inspections Field inspections to obtain an overview of potential fire conditions in South Sumatra (fuels, ignition sources, weather conditions), to view project activities, to inspect fire equipment and to meet with stakeholders were carried out commencing three weeks after arrival in Palembang. Administrative details and letters of introduction were organised by Dinas Kehutanan, allowing meeting to take place with District officials and forestry staff. Appendix C contains the field trip reports for some of these visits.

4.2 Inter-Provincial Fire Management Study Trip A study trip was undertaken from 1 to 13 April in East, South and Central Kalimantan. FME Borger was accompanied by Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin. The three projects visited were the Berau Forest Management Project (BFMP), the Integrated Forest Fire Project (IFFM) and the South and Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project (SCKPFP). The objective of the study trip were to: • Lay the foundations for closer cooperation between fire management projects in

Indonesia. • Review and assess fire management structures in East, South and Central Kalimantan. • Assess resources developed by each project that can be utilised throughout the other

project areas. • Discuss and evaluate common equipment requirements. • Expose Indonesian counterpart and FFPCP staff to different fire management models,

approaches and implementation processes.

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The outcomes of the study trip were: • A higher level of fire management knowledge within the FFPCP team and counterparts.

Especially instructive was the observation of essentially three different approaches to assisting the stakeholders to deal with the fire problem, detailed in Appendix D.

• An increased willingness to share resources. Each project made a range of fire resources available for inspection and expressed a willingness to undertake joint development of training courses and equipment design. Methodologies and systems developed by each project were explained and copies obtained. A “Training of Trainers” course developed by IFFM (with input from BFMP) will be used to train trainers in South Sumatra.

• Joint development of resources – this process has commenced with three specific projects: the development of a crewboss course (FFPCP and IFFM), the promotion of the need to have a national fire resource centre (BFMP and FFPCP) under the MoF umbrella, and the design and testing of a range of fire equipment designs (BFMP, SCKPFP and FFPCP).

• Equipment standardisation – this will be facilitated by joint design and testing of fire equipment and its subsequent promotion through the proposed fire resource centre.

• Training and competency levels standardisation - this will be facilitated by joint development of training course material and its subsequent promotion through the proposed fire resource centre.

Appendix D contains a trip report.

4.3 Close Cooperation With Other Fire Managers Close cooperation between the donor-funded projects, as well as cooperation with Indonesian agencies responsible for fire management, is essential to eliminate duplication in resource development (training courses, equipment standards), ensure consistency of advise to government agencies and ensure common standards are developed and applied. It is recognised that the coordination of effort of donor-funded projects with a fire component is the responsibility of the Directorate of Forest Fire Control. Suggestions on how this coordination could be carried out were made to the Ministry of Forestry – Directorate of Forest Fire Control through EC Jakarta. However until these suggestions are acted upon and processes and procedures implemented by the Directorate of Forest Fire Control, fire managers from the various projects (South and Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project, Berau Forest Management Project, Integrated Forest Fire Management Project and FFPCP) agreed to freely share information, assist each other in new developments and peer review significant documents. Agreement to work together more closely was reached during the Inter-provincial Fire Management Study trip, an undertaking not attended by the JICA funded Forest Fire Prevention Management Project. This, and the recent team staff rotations within the JICA-FFPMP, have meant that

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they have not as yet been included in this informal network. Continued cooperation with the fire managers network339, as well as the inclusion of JICA-FFPMP, is a priority for SSFFMP.

4.4 National Proposals Two proposals were prepared to streamline and develop fire management at the national level. Both proposals were accepted and promulgated by EC Jakarta. The first proposal titled: “The establishment of an Indonesian Fire Resource Centre within the Ministry of Forestry, Directorate of Forest and Estate Crops Fire Control” proposed that a centre be established to collect, assess and make available fire management information and resources to fire managers in Indonesia. The suggestions in the proposal are being actively developed and have been expanded by the Directorate of Forest Fire Control, EC Jakarta and FLB. Significant EC funds are pledged for this initiative. The second proposal was to establish an Indonesian Fire Management Specialist Group. This group’s role would be to provide specialist advise to the Directorate of Forest Fire Control in its fire management responsibilities. Specific assistance in the area of fire equipment and training resource development was envisaged for this group in the proposal. A meeting organised by the Directorate of Forest Fire Control in September 2001 agreed to establish a specialist working group for fire equipment, a group for fire training was also discussed. The EC projects will be represented on both working groups. Appendix E contains the Indonesian Fire Resource Centre proposal as presented to the EC Jakarta.

4.5 Training Resource Development For Crewboss Training FFPCP, BFMP and GTZ-IFFM individually identified the need to train selected staff to be able to direct, supervise and manage firefighters at the fire. Fire managers from the three projects strongly believed that duplication should be avoided and that a stronger product would be created by cooperation. It was decided that FFPCP and GTZ-IFFM undertake the development work, with BFMP providing comments on curriculum content. The Directorate of Forest Fire Control was invited to participate in this initiative. A project plan, including a comprehensive task list and deadlines, was written to guide the development process. The project aim was to develop a crewboss training course, and all the associated training materials, for use by fire management organisations in Indonesia. The development team met twice to design the curriculum and develop the individual modules. The next stage is to run a pilot course, evaluate the results of this and produce the final course. Appendix F contains the Project Plan and the agreed curriculum.

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4.6 Training of Fire Trainers A five day training of trainers course was carried out in Palembang from 22 to 26 October 2001. Thirty participants attended and successfully completed the course. The wildfires of 1997 in South Sumatra showed that a large number of firefighters are required to deal with wildfires given the local terrain and fuels, but that few trained personnel were generally available. There is no provincial database to show how many trained firefighters there are in South Sumatra, however with the exception of the HTI, PT. Musi Hutan Persada and a few oil palm estates, it can be reasonably assumed that insufficient trained and equipped firefighters exist to deal with significant fires. These facts, coupled with the sheer number of firefighters that must be trained to have any fire suppression impact during the next drought, show that the training of firefighters is not a task able to be undertaken by Dinas Kehutanan Propinsi Sumatera Selatin and/or FFPCP alone. The training of trainers project aims to establish and maintain a strong group of motivated and skilled fire trainers with the aim of carrying out basic training of firefighters throughout South Sumatra. It’s also envisaged that this cadre of trainers will be used when a drought is predicted to carry out extra training courses in the areas where high fire danger is expected. Course participants came from government agencies, private companies and donor-funded projects from around the Province. Phase one of the project, course planning, was undertaken by a working committee made up of Dinas Kehutanan and FFPCP staff. Phase two, training delivery, was undertaken by Pak Edi Marbianto and Pak Asli from GTZ-IFFM. The third phase of the project is to set up and support a trainers network. The aim of this network is to motivate and direct the trainers to carry out courses and to cooperatively produce training resources. Appendix G contains the Project Plan.

4.7 Fire Management Training A training course was developed to provide an overview of the fire situation in Indonesia, give an introduction to fire management and outline the fundamentals of fire suppression. This course was delivered for staff from the Leuser Development Programme. The Leuser course was run in Medan from 25 to 27 June, with the fire management component being delivered on 27 June. Student handout materials, class quizzes and a Powerpoint presentation were prepared for the course. Appendix H contains the session outline.

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4.8 Fire Simulation On 12 June a multi-level fire command and control simulation exercise was run concurrently in Jakarta, Palembang and Kayu Agung. The different locations interacted with each other in accordance to normal chain of command procedures using radio, fax, phone and email facilities. The simulation was run at the National level through BAKORNAS PB in Jakarta, at the provincial level through the Governors office in Palembang and at the district level through Dinas Kehutanan in Kayu Agung. FFPCP’s involvement in the simulation involved obtaining support for the concept from Dinas Kehutanan and the Governor of South Sumatra, setting up the organising team, liaising with the national level simulation organisers (BAKORNAS PB and Deanne Shulman – US Forest Service), drafting the scenario inputs, preparing the background material (fire location, hotspot maps, fire weather and rainfall), delivering the simulation briefing, providing input during the simulation and evaluating the exercise. The objective was to create a practice field for learning and strengthening existing institutional structures responsible for coordination and response aspects of a national land and forest fire disaster. The following scenario was used: “Multiple fires in South Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan have been on-going since late May, 2001. The haze from these fires has drifted towards Singapore and Malaysia, reducing visibility and raising the Pollution Standard Index to unhealthy levels. Most of the haze seems to be originated from peat fires in South Sumatra. The Indonesian Minister of Environment has stated if immediate suppression action is not taken, this land and forest fire episode will be a repeat of the 1997/1998 environmental disaster. The Singapore airport has been closed since yesterday (June 10, 2001). Malaysia is hosting a major international sporting event in one week and is very concerned about air quality for athletes as well as closure of airports for arriving athletes and spectators.” Evaluation notes and general recommendations to improve the provincial ability to provide effective command and control during large fires were prepared and are attached as Appendix I.

4.9 Website Redevelopment And Project Publications The FFPCP website was redesigned to improve access to project outputs and resources. All material on the old website was evaluated, with out of date material discarded and a number of new initiative and articles added. Significant effort went into ensuring that navigation around the website, and finding specific items, articles and publications was simplified. Navigation from the home page to all website areas is through seven subject area buttons (Daily Fire Map, Drought Index, Weather, Publications, Articles and Photo Gallery, FFPCP Project, Press Clippings) and four menu line buttons (Contact us, Site map, Links, Our team).

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4.10 Drought Index Calculation of the drought index using the Keetch Byram method was continued for South Sumatra using weather observations from the Palembang BMG Airport station. Weather observations from the BMG Kenten station, were also collected to serve as a check of the primary station. The use of this secondary data source was necessary on occasion due to incompleteness of the BMG Airport data.

Figure 5: Daily values of the Keetch Byram Drought Index for Palembang January to October 2001.

4.11 Assessment Of Climate Of South Sumatra An analysis of climatic factors that effect fire occurrence, timing, and likely severity is a prerequisite to detailed fire management planning. Long-term records of rainfall, temperature and relative humidity were constructed and analysed to determine annual rainfall variability, timing and severity of dry seasons, climate change, impact of el Nino on rainfall, and relative humidity and temperature fluctuations. Specific attention was given to the frequency, timing and severity of droughts. In the period 1951 to 2000, fifteen droughts occurred in South Sumatra, nine of which were associated with el Nino events. Severe droughts on average occur one in ten years. Most droughts start in South Sumatra in June and run till September/October. Appendix J contains the climate, and the drought frequency and severity assessments.

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4.12 Fire Management Assessment Workbook A Fire Management Assessment Workbook was developed to provide the framework, guidelines and structure for assessing fire management organisations. The design of a standard process allows comparison to be made between fire management organisations (private companies, government agencies), and allows progress to be measured over time. After completion of the assessment, an organisation has the baseline for planning improvements to its fire management capability, and can track its progress over time towards a desirable minimum level. It is recommended that SSFFMP use this approach to assess the state of fire management with stakeholders in the priority areas and utilise this tool to plan improvements. Appendix K contains extracts of the workbook.

4.13 Photo-Library An electronic photo-library of images related to fire management was created. The motivation to create the library stems from the ongoing and regular need for images to produce training materials, PowerPoint presentations and articles. The library makes the storage of images and image selection fast and efficient. Material for the library was obtained from FFPCP photographs since 1995 (scanned - .jpg format) and from recent digital camera photos (1200x1600 pixels). The 600 images currently in the library are organised in the following directories: Directory: Fire, contains subdirectories: equipment, fires, fuel, landclearing, maps, oil palm, satellite images, suppression, training and miscellaneous. Directory: FFPCP Palembang, contains subdirectories: staff, scenery and miscellaneous. Directory: Field trips, contains: Bangka, Bukit Barisan, MHP and SBA Wood. Directory Conferences, contains subdirectory: Community in Flames conference.

Figure 6: Rod Bowen and Ifran examining hotspot maps.

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5. FIRE EQUIPMENT The selection, procurement, storage, maintenance and administration of fire equipment is an essential function of a fire management organisation. The quality, quantity and type of equipment held in an area must be commensurate with an assessment of the fire environment (fuels, weather and topography), ease and type of access to high risk areas, the ergonomics of the local firefighters, and the ability of local agents to supply and maintain equipment items. In this section details and comments on the fire suppression equipment provided by FFPCP to local fire management organisations since 1995 will be given. This is followed by a general set of principles to guide future fire equipment purchases and management. A suggested fire equipment strategy for the South Sumatra Forest Fire Management Project completes this section.

5.1 Equipment Provided By FFPCP Equipment provided in the province of South Sumatra has been distributed to District Offices of Dinas Kehutanan (Lahat, Muari Enim, Musi Banyuasin, Ogan Komering Ilir, Bangka) the provincial office of Dinas Kehutanan, and to the three original pilot areas (Uli Musi, Pampangan, Pendopo). The suppression equipment distributed includes: • 200 sets of protective clothing (boots, gloves, helmet, goggles, jacket and trousers) • 700 hand tools (fire rakes, shovels, McLeod tools, Pulaski, brush hooks, and fire beaters) • 40 backpack pumps • 12 drip torches • 3 high pressure low volume pumps (Wajax Mk 3) • 9 lengths of fire hose (30 m per length) • 8 slip on tanks (portable unit consisting of 600 litre tank, pump and hose reel) • 1 tanker trailer • 1 fireline plow • 2 IFEX impulse fire extinguishers (complete with air compressor) • 1 infrared heat detector • assorted navigation equipment (compass, fire finders, binoculars) • 14 handheld radios Additional items such as weather stations and computers were also supplied to a number of organisations. Most of the equipment was imported, either by an Indonesian supplier or direct through FFPCP. Only 180 fire rakes were locally manufactured. Of the hand tools supplied by FFPCP, a number were inspected during the last six months in five locations. Most appear to have received some use, and although generally poorly stored, these items are in reasonable condition.

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A high-pressure low-volume portable pump, inspected at one of the original pilot areas, was not operational due to a defective sparkplug and lead. Obtaining replacement parts was proving difficult for the organisation. Fire hose for this pump was in poor conditions and had non-compatible couplings with other fire hose used in the area. The backpack pumps were widely complimented for their usefulness and were observed in good operational condition. The slip-on tanks were inspected at a number of sites. These units were in good condition, and receiving some use in one area – having been permanently mounted on a light 4x4 vehicle for fast initial fire attack. The IFEX impulse fire extinguishers were inspected and appear to take pride of place at every inspection or static demonstration around South Sumatra. These fire

Figure 7: Fire equipment at Musi Hutan Persada supplied by FFPCP

extinguishers are complicated to maintain, require well trained and disciplined firefighters, and were extremely expensive to purchase. Due to their mode of operation they are not suitable for vegetation fire suppression, and their purchase must be considered a costly mistake! General lessons that can be learned from the equipment provided by FFPCP are: • Storage facilities of a suitable quality and design may not be available, and must therefore

be considered part of the package when issuing equipment. • Complex and expensive equipment is unlikely to be maintained and will not remain

operational. • Better records of equipment provided should be kept. • Maintenance and inspection schedules must be designed and carried out.

5.2 Fire Suppression Principles To Guide Equipment Decisions Fires will continue to occur in South Sumatra. In non-drought years most will be well controlled with only the occasional need to carry out fire suppression, however during drought years many fires will exceed their management objectives and will need to be actively suppressed.

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Drought years – when active suppression is essential – may coincide with el Nino events, and occur one in three years. Severe droughts occur one in ten years. During ‘mega-fire-years’, such as 1997, the province of South Sumatra will need thousands of well equipped and trained fire fighters, as well as the command and control structures to manage the operations, fire suppression budget, and suitable infrastructure to detect, report and dispatch these forces. During prolonged droughts accessible water is scarce in the zones where most fires occur. This impedes boat access along canals and rivers and limits water available for suppression operations. Equipment supplied should allow the widespread use of dry fire suppression techniques, such as manual firebreak construction and backburning. Suppression of fires in peat areas is very difficult, costly and time consuming – these fires must be suppressed before they spread over large areas. Equipment must also support rapid detection and response capabilities. Tools and equipment are generally poorly stored and maintained in the field leading to unreliability and breakdown. Equipment in this state does not support initial attack and can compromise firefighter safety.

5.3 A Fire Equipment Strategy For South Sumatra The following strategy is based on: • FFPCP experience with fire equipment in South Sumatra over the last five years. • Inspections of fire equipment in South Sumatra and in East, South and Central

Kalimantan. • Discussions with, and documents from, other fire managers in Indonesia. • Extensive practical experience in fire equipment procurement and management abroad. A four part strategy is suggested: Procurement, Storage, Maintenance, and Administration. No specifics in regards to numbers and types of items and suitable storage locations are provided here, these decisions will be made by SSFFMP in consultation with provincial and district stakeholders. Decisions should be based on a map-based assessment of fire danger.

Procurement 1. SSFFMP should not attempt to equip the whole of the province but instead focus on

developing capacity, providing examples of locally appropriate equipment and assist in the establishment of a provincial fire equipment centre. It is important to ensure that:

• Suppression equipment that is difficult to operate and/or costly to purchase should be avoided.

• Tool designs consider local conditions, working methods and firefighter physique.

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2. Fire environment and fire behaviour conditions that prevail during times of high wildfire activity must be considered when selecting equipment. For many areas this means concentrating on equipment required for dry firefighting, the ability to move water long distances using relay pumping techniques, and the development of equipment for dealing with smouldering peat fires.

3. All equipment must be compatible and interchangeable. This will require decisions on standards for hose coupling types, hose diameters, colour codes for fuels, suction hose fittings, carry frames and pump footings, trailer couplings, rank identifiers and protective clothing etc. National standards must be adhered to where available (Subject to compatibility with local conditions and needs).

4. Readily available and affordable spare parts must be available for all equipment. 5. A basic toolkit and spare parts must be issued with all equipment. 6. Priority should be given to items that can be locally made and maintained. Many basic

items can to be manufactured locally in Palembang, however specific quality control standards must be drafted to ensure consistency and quality of product. Purchasing locally made goods will minimise transport costs, ensure ease of maintenance, and support local industry.

Storage 7. Basic fire equipment such as hand tools, backpack pumps, drip torches and some

protective clothing should be stored and maintained at District offices, local communities and forestry camps. This equipment must be available at the locality at all times and be under local control.

8. Storage modules, either of a cupboard or equipment box type must form part of the allocation.

9. Specialised fire equipment such as pump and waterway equipment, radios and quantities of backup equipment – stored in readily transportable kits - should be kept in a provincial fire equipment centre. This centre must be permanently staffed with trained equipment officers, whose duties include carrying out equipment checks and maintenance in the field, administering the centre and delivering fire equipment to critical areas during times of high fire danger and during fire incidents. Training officers will need to deliver basic equipment training when equipment is deployed in the field.

10. All equipment must be stored in kits to allow complete kits to be transported easily without the risk that essential items are left behind. Some suggestions for kits are:

• Hand tool kit for 10 firefighters (assortment of hand tools, protective clothing, backpack pumps, drip torches).

• Hand tool kit for 20 firefighters (as above). • Low volume high pressure pump kit (pump, suction hoses, 41 mm delivery hose,

nozzles, breeches, fuel, hydroblender, soap capsules, toolkit). • High volume, high pressure pump kit (pump, suction hoses, 70 mm delivery hose,

gooseneck fillers, breeches, fuel, toolkit). • Fire command kit (maps, GPS, attendance boards and note pads, white boards, log book,

planning forms, briefing aids). • Communications kit (fire ground radios, spare batteries and charging facility, back to

base communications (SSB or satphone), mini repeater, aerials). • Generator kit (generator, toolkit and fuel). • Food and drink kit (field rations, rice, carbohydrate snacks, water). • Field accommodation kit (basic materials for shelter construction, sleeping mats,

mosquito nets and coils, ground sheets, ropes). • Protective clothing kit (sun hats, overalls, helmets, gloves, goggles).

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• Comprehensive first aid kit. • Field weather kit. Maintenance 11. Annual inspections prior to the fire season must be scheduled and carried out by the

Provincial Fire Equipment Centre. Standard forms will be used to report state of equipment to the equipment owner, local authorities and fire management agencies.

12. Maintenance costs must be covered by the equipment owner. 13. All items from the Provincial Fire Equipment Centre will be checked and maintained

when returned from the field. Missing equipment will be charged to the user, in accordance with signed mutual agreements.

Administration 14. Access to equipment is not synonymous with ownership. Efficient fire control can be

achieved without owning all the equipment that may be required at a fire – this is especially true of expensive and multi-purpose items such as earth moving equipment and vehicles. However for this to be effective, additional preparedness measures must be taken. These include identifying and contacting equipment owners, negotiating contract rates and arranging priority access before the fire season. Equipment details, contract rates and 24-hour contact details must be compiled in a Fire Equipment Register. The register should be compiled by Provincial Fire Equipment Centre staff in cooperation with stakeholders from each district.

15. A fire equipment subsidy scheme could be designed and implemented, where fire equipment can be purchased from SSFFMP (or the Provincial Fire Equipment Centre) by fire management organisations, companies or local communities at subsidised rates. The subsidy would be highest on protective clothing and basic tools for government agencies and local communities. Lower subsidy rates would apply for commercial companies and more complex and expensive items. Conditions regarding equipment storage, maintenance and ongoing ownership will apply.

16. Protocols must be developed with the Provincial Fire Equipment Centre for equipment use and access, to ensure equipment is available for training and demonstration purposes at cost.

17. Maintenance agreements and access protocols should be developed before any subsidised equipment is supplied to the recipient.

18. A training programme for Provincial Fire Equipment Centre staff should be developed covering fire equipment maintenance and centre management.

19. Standard training packages should be developed to be presented when equipment is delivered to the field. Individual training packages should be developed for the range of equipment that may be issued.

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Fire equipment conclusion The provision and the efficient and effective management of fire equipment is one of the cornerstones of fire suppression. FFPCP has built up significant experience in this field and is in a position to present the above strategic direction for South Sumatra. SSFFMP will be more active in equipment procurement than FFPCP, and has significant funds to undertake this activity. The temptation – and easy option – to import and distribute fire equipment to companies and government agencies must be avoided, past experience in South Sumatra has shown this approach is not effective. Instead a long-term equipment strategy – as provided in draft form in this document must be discussed with local fire management agencies, adopted and implemented. The establishment of a Provincial Fire Equipment Centre is integral and pivotal to the success of the proposed strategy. However local support by providing funding, staffing and management of this Centre, must be assured before SSFFMP considers committing resources to its establishment and outfitting. Fire equipment currently owned by government agencies in Palembang and other equipment in the districts must be included in the Centre and/or the overall equipment plan. A Fire Equipment Resource Register, containing details of contract and owned equipment, should be produced and regularly updated. Agreements for equipment use, and protocols for paying for this must be established.

Figure 8: Fire equipment inspected at a HTI in South Sumatra.

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6. GENERAL FIRE MANAGEMENT FINDINGS

Many of the conclusions and recommendations of FFPCP over the past five years have been published in sixteen technical reports produced since 1999 and are not repeated here. They are rather supplemented by new information based on experience and observations since February 2001. 6.1 General

• Landscape fires, ‘mega-fire’ events and extreme fire seasons will continue to occur in the short to medium term.

• Droughts occur on average one out of three years, with severe droughts on average one out of ten years.

• The use of fire for land management purposes (land clearing, improving access, fuel reduction, rubbish removal) is extremely widespread – and in many cases an essential livelihood activity.

• Small land-clearing burns carried out by smallholders do not cause significant smoke problems and are controlled sufficiently well to stop fire spread beyond the intended boundary in non-drought years. However during severe droughts some of these fires do escape control efforts and add to the fire load and problem.

• Fires have occurred in South Sumatra for a long period of time; fire adapted ecosystems (Melaleuca scrublands) have resulted and are maintained by the existing fire regime.

• Fires that burn in the peat swamps are the cause of most of the smoke and haze problems.

• Landscape wide changes to vegetation – from primary forest to sedge/grass/fern/scrublands – have resulted in a more fire prone environment.

• Large tracts of forest land which had high conservation and economic values – and were therefore worthy of investing in fire protection – have now been replaced by scrublands – a resource of little current economic value. The justification for fire protection can now not be based on a resource protection argument, instead smoke and haze minimisation and allowing regeneration to occur are the only justifications for suppressing fires in these areas.

• In the short to medium term, fire suppression in remote areas where no values are threatened is unlikely to occur, unless a comprehensive fire management system is designed, implemented and adequately funded.

6.2 Fire Causes

• Fire use in South Sumatra is endemic, with many people using fire as a cost effective tool to achieve their specific land management objectives.

• Many factors, both direct and indirect are responsible for the wildfires that occur in South Sumatra. An oversimplification of these and their relationship to local policies and company activities will not benefit fire management.

• The direct fire causes are readily observed: examples include, land-clearing burns, fires to improve access in areas of dense vegetation, fuel reduction along roads and around dwellings, escaped fires from legitimate livelihood activities and sonor rice land preparation.

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• The indirect causes of fires relate to the creation of a highly fire-prone landscape through land use practices, and the development and implementation of plans and policies that do not adequately recognise the impact of activities on the likelihood and severity of wildfires, and do nothing to mitigate the predictable outcome.

• The variety of land use types and livelihood activities throughout the province precludes the identification of any single fire cause: different areas use fire in distinct ways and fire prevention and management must be individualised to account for this.

• Some of the factors that have led to the fire problems are: forest harvesting practices, land clearing, transmigration, occurrence of droughts, land allocation conflicts, improved access, swamp drainage, illegal logging, and an increase in the fire proneness of the landscape.

• Fire causes - in the broadest sense - can be categorised into the following groups: land clearing fires, fires associated with resource extraction, accidental or escaped fires, and fires used as a weapon.

• Sonor rice production relies on uncontrolled burning practices during drought years; it results in the burning of much greater areas than are finally planted.

• Fishing in the swamp areas is the cause of some of the fires, either deliberately lit to facilitate access or accidentally from cooking fires left smouldering.

• The accurate determination of fire causes for distinct areas is an essential requirement before effective fire prevention can be carried out. Common misconceptions such as attributing fires to discarded cigarettes or lightning must be strongly refuted and the true causes identified. An important lead in determining the true cause of a fire is to identify who gains from the occurrence of the fire; this party may know more about the fire cause then they’ll readily admit.

6.3 Suppression

• Large fires will predominantly occur in the coastal swamp areas. These fires are characterised by scrub fuels and poor access.

• Swamp fires are difficult, although not impossible to suppress. Early detection and prompt and aggressive initial attack are the keys to minimising the suppression task and to keeping the area burnt, and the smoke produced, to a minimum.

• Plantation forests are also at risk of large and damaging wildfires during droughts. • An assessment of fuel and weather conditions in South Sumatra shows that generally

fire spread-rates can be expected to be low to moderate. However because of the large quantities of available fuel in many of the fuel types, particularly in swamp scrublands, fire intensities well in excess of the direct attack control threshold (4000 kW/m) should be anticipated.

• Alang alang fires when accompanied by moderate to strong winds during drought conditions will burn with high fire intensity.

• The ability to effectively deal with large fires requires multi-agency cooperation. • An effective command and control system for field level must be standardised

throughout South Sumatra. Personnel for the various positions must be trained, and regular exercises undertaken.

• Insufficient trained staff and fire equipment are available in South Sumatra to deal with the scale of the fires that will be experienced during the next severe drought.

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6.4 Administration

• It is not clear which agency will take fire suppression action and is generally responsible for fire management over large tracts of degraded swamp land.

• Fire information and the associated systems essential to effectively carry out fire management (e.g. Fire Danger Rating System, communication systems, fire detection, resource dispatch and fire records) are not well developed.

• There are few full-time fire management staff. • No structured fire training programme or long-term strategy to up-skill key personnel

exist. • There are no up-to-date maps at 1:50 000 and 1:250 000 scales that show the features

required to manage fires. • There is no agency with clear responsibility, authority and funding to provide fire

management oversight, guidance and motivation.

Figure 9: Young rubber plantation with a ground cover of Alang alang.

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7. RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE SOUTH SUMATRA FOREST FIRE MANAGEMENT PROJECT

Many general suggestions can be made for the new EU fire project in Palembang based on general fire management theory and knowledge and lessons learned by FFPCP. The following recommendations are based on observations in South Sumatra during the last eight months and from information contained in project reports, and are specific to fire management. Their implementation will require the full cooperation of, and funding input from, local agencies, and the attainment of the objective must be a joint EU/local agency effort. 7.1 General

• The title of the new project refers specifically to forest fire; however, in reality, it is integrated fire management for fire prone areas that is needed to deal more effectively with the fire issues in South Sumatra. Little of the province remains under forest today.

• Other fire-related projects working in South Sumatra must be fully engaged by SSFFMP to ensure close cooperation and that common messages and recommendations are made to local decision-makers.

• Donor-funded projects in Indonesia with an interest in vegetation fires should be utilised to provide leverage for SSFFMP activities. Examples are: the Canadian Forest Service Fire Danger Rating Project which may be able to provide a FDRS for South Sumatra; CIFOR with its work on fire causes and impacts; RETA/US Forest Service with mobilisation planning and fire simulations, and; the Haze Prevention Group with its standard setting and oversight role of plantation companies.

• FFPCP has concentrated heavily on studies, reports and pilot projects. These activities need not be repeated by SSFFMP. Sufficient knowledge has been amassed to progress to large scale fire management at the District and Provincial levels. The emphasis must now be placed on ‘making it work’.

7.2 Fire Management Structure

• Stakeholders, at the company, government, NGO and community levels should be identified and partnerships built.

• Partnerships between the Districts and SSFFMP are essential – these must involve budget and staff allocations from the District stakeholder.

• Responsibility for fire management and operational response must be established and accepted by the designated agency; all land in the province must be accounted for.

• The six Districts of South Sumatra cover too large an area (~10 million ha) for SSFFMP to help establish an effective fire management system in each: immediate efforts should concentrate on OKI and MUBA.

• A Provincial Fire Management Centre is essential and must be established to: 1. Develop fire policies, strategies and plans. 2. Develop a Fire Management Code of Practice (FMCOP).

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3. Undertake fire management audits to check compliance with legislation and FMCOP.

4. Monitor and provide advice to stakeholders on drought predictions. 5. Monitoring fire danger. 6. Monitor fire occurrence and response. 7. Develop training courses. 8. Deliver advanced fire training. 9. Coordinate stakeholder involvement. 10. Provide fire suppression funding. 11. Provide input and direction to Provincial and District planners. 12. Prosecute companies that break fire laws. 13. Work with, and provide inputs to, the Directorate of Forest Fire Control within

MoF Jakarta. 14. Direct and allocate priorities to fire research. 15. Develop locally appropriate fire equipment and provide fire equipment grants. 16. Establish and control a Provincial Fire Equipment Centre.

• Establish District Fire Coordination Groups in which stakeholders cooperate, and coordinate fire management activities.

• An annual baseline fire management budget, set in accordance with identified base levels, must be allocated to the responsible department/section. Additional funds need to be available against the occasions when large-fire suppression operations become necessary.

7.3 Local Fire Management Staff Development SSFFMP should; • Continue to develop and support the fire trainers’ network. • Provide opportunities for staff to undertake long-term fire management studies in other

countries where they would work closely within the existing structure. • Instigate Fire Officer exchange programmes with neighbouring nations (Thailand,

Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei). • Organise fire management study-visits to other countries for key stakeholders and

decision-makers. • Organise study trips to examine specific aspects of fire management. 7.4 Tools And Systems

• Promote the establishment of a base-map layer for the province showing land ownership and administrative boundaries.

• Obtain, or produce, maps as an aid to fire management and fire suppression (1:50 000 scale showing vegetation types, roads, rivers, boundaries, ownership, etc.).

• Continue to operate the NOAA satellite receiver and interpret the data to monitor fire occurrence in Sumatra. NOAA will remain an essential element in fire management for the foreseeable future. Only when an effective local (on-the-ground) fire detection and incident reporting systems is in place should the function of NOAA be re-assessed.

• Establish a mandatory Fire Management Code of Practice that sets out the minimum standards of fire management for large landholders. The Code should set: levels of cover (equipment and trained staff baselines based on risk and hazard); standard operating procedures; fire action plan format; detection and dispatch requirements; fire danger monitoring; audits; debriefs; operational assessments; fire incident recording system; fire prevention activities; permits, etc.

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• Develop and adopt a comprehensive Fire Danger Rating System (not simply a drought code) and develop readiness levels and standard operating procedures based on the fire danger levels.

7.5 Fire Prevention

• Design a provincial fire prevention strategy that aims to minimise the incidence of preventable wildfires.

• Recognise that fire prevention does not aim to eliminate all fires but seeks to reduce the number and severity of wildfires and to create a less fire prone environment.

• Develop a map-based system to identify areas of high fire hazard (potential fire behaviour) and risk (likelihood of ignition).

• Reduce fuel hazards in key areas. • Work with government agencies at District level to develop and implement a permit

system to regulate large land-clearing burns; training in planning controlled burns forms a part of this task.

• Expand the environmental education programme with the aim of reducing fires through increased awareness and knowledge.

• Establish a system to investigate and record the causes of fires. • Seek to influence land-use plans and policies to reflect and incorporate aspects of fire

management. • Design and carry out targeted, rather than mass media, fire prevention campaigns. • Control and restrict activities that may lead to wildfires; these controls should be based

on fire danger levels; people affected by the controls must be educate in advance of enforcement.

• Carry our research to determine indicators of impending drought, in addition to those based on ENSO forecasting.

7.6 Preparedness Preparedness is those activities that are undertaken before a fire occurs. They are concerned with: the organisation, training and management of a firefighting force; the procurement and maintenance of equipment and supplies, and; the establishment and maintenance of systems to detect fires and dispatch resources to the fire. • Prepare Suppression Response Zone Plans (SRZP) for all fire-prone areas. These should

detail access, assets, fire resources and steps to be taken by whom in the event of a fire. • Promote the establishment of Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) between

organisations with fire suppression responsibilities. The MOU should cover fire reporting, resource sharing, cost allocation, training and equipment compatibility and be designed to promote ‘seamless assistance’ in the event of fires that are beyond the ability of a single agency to control.

• Design and promote standard fire training courses. • Ensure that sufficient trained staff are available in fire prone areas to deal with 90

percent of the fires. • Carry out fire command and control simulations. These should, in the first instance, be

field-based but graduate to multi-level simulations when field operations function effectively.

• Adopt a fire equipment strategy (see Section 5 – Fire Equipment) and provide equipment to stakeholders.

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• Develop a fire detection system that makes use of passive (public reporting) and active (scheduled patrols, lookouts and NOAA satellite) detection. Detection efforts should increase in fire-prone areas in times of drought.

• Develop and then regularly update fire action plans at District and landholder level. • Establish and maintain a database of trained personnel. 7.7 Suppression

• Develop a provincial command and control system to standardise control at wildfires. • Develop and implement standard operating procedures for wildfire response; these must

take into account the daily fire danger level. • Develop a wildfire escalation plan that details responsibilities for fires that escape initial

attack. 7.8 Recovery Recovery concerns activities that are carried out after a fire is suppressed and include rehabilitation, salvage operations, critical assessment of the suppression operation and the development of improvements to fire preparedness and suppression systems and procedures. • Design and implement a fire debriefing procedure. • Design and maintain a fire incident recording system. Carry out operational assessments on large or otherwise important fires.

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Appendix A.

Terms Of Reference - Fire Management Expert Background The goal of FFPCP is, ‘To give support, guidance and technical capability at provincial level for the rational and sustainable management of Indonesia’s forest resources’. The purpose, ‘To develop integrated systems of forest and land fire prevention and suppression, involving government, community and commercial interests’. The use of fire to clear land, by both settled smallholder farmers and by commercial estate crop companies, is widespread in Sumatra. In years of average rainfall few of the many thousands of fires escape control and thus require suppression. However in years of prolonged drought (el Nino events), fire numbers rise many-fold and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of wildfires. The dense smoke haze pollution that drifts to Singapore and Malaysia in el Nino years arises largely from fires in the coastal wetlands and peat swamps that occur along the east coast of the island. The recurrence of trans-boundary smoke haze pollution in March-April 2000, a year of average rainfall, and the fear of further smoke plumes attracted renewed international attention and placed fresh pressure on the Government of Indonesia to develop a national integrated forest fire management system designed to reduce the occurrence of fire. The European Commission is in the process of preparing a second phase to FFPCP and it is necessary to maintain the continuity of the activities of the present project while also preparing for the arrival of the new TA team under FFPCP Phase II. The number of expatriate advisors will be limited during the Bridging Phase but the role of the Fire Management Expert is important to ensure that there is a degree of continuity in fire prevention and control activities in the period before the Phase II team assumes responsibility. Duty Station Palembang with numerous and extended field visits to the fire management centres, Regency capitals and private companies within South Sumatra province: limited visits to other donor-funded projects with an interest in the management of vegetation fires within Indonesia and to meetings within the S.E. Asia region as agreed with the Project Leader. Length of the Assignment Eight months within the period early May 2000 until October 2001 with a target start date of early January 2001. Reporting The Fire Management Expert will report directly to the Project Leader Responsibilities 1. Within a short time of arrival, familiarise him / herself with the work of FFPCP to date; in particular, with those reports that set out the findings and recommendations on the prevention and control of vegetation fires.

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2. Punctually familiarise him / herself with the training on fire prevention and control given to members of various organisations in South Sumatra carried out under the RETA programme supported under an ASEAN initiative. 3. In accordance with the responsibilities of the Ministry of Forestry and Estate crops, give support to HPH and HPHTI to draw-up fire prevention and control plans and to put these plans into effect following the guidelines and priorities issued by regional and district offices. 4. Continue to develop and implement training programmes in fire prevention and firefighting; these will be given to employees of Kanwil and Dinas Kehutanan dan Perkebunan, and to HPH and HPHTI, as well as to villagers and to staff of NGOs concerned with the protection of fauna and flora. Note: While work under headings 3 and 4 above will be carried out in both dry and wetland parts of the province, the accent will be on fire prevention and fire control in the coastal and inland swamps that are the major source of smoke haze pollution.

5. If required assist the above organisations to fight fires in the field. 6. Prepare a report on the work carried out during the assignment and that refines and highlights further work to be carried out under Phase II of the project and that suggests equipment requirements / purchases to be made under the new budget. (This report will be in final format 14 days before the end of the assignment period to allow adequate time for printing and wider distribution.) Expected Outputs 1. The recovery of momentum lost in the 21 month absence of a fire management expert. 2. Better trained fire prevention and control staff in the field at District and Sub-District

levels, based with a number of government, non-government and private organisations in South Sumatra.

3. Stakeholders at policy and field levels in the province - and government / donor / private organisations within Indonesia - familiar with, and receptive to, the need for additional training in practical fire prevention and control techniques.

4. Recommendations prepared – with allocated priorities - for further work on fire prevention and control to be carried out under Phase II.

5. Recommendations prepared for equipment purchases to be made under Phase II. 6. At the end of the assignment a concise a report (printed and electronic copies in MS

WORD) on the Expert’s activities during the period. This report will include a summary (2-5 pages) and suitable for translation into Bahasa Indonesia) of the major findings, conclusions and recommendations arising from the work.

7. At the end of the assignment the presentation of the major findings, conclusions and recommendations arising from the work of the project on fire prevention and control from 1996 to 2001 to the Directorate for Forest Fire Control within the Ministry of Forestry and Estate Crops, and to the EC Delegation.

Jakarta, May 2000

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Appendix B

Calender Of Events, Visits, Visitors And Meetings 13 February 2001. Mr Bert Borger, Fire Management Expert, arrived in Palembang to take-up eight month appointment. 14 February 2001. FME Borger and Project Leader meet with Pak Syaiful Ramadhan 27 February 2001. FME Borger attend JICA fire project workshop in Jakarta. 1 March 2001. FME Borger and Project Leader Bowen meet with Pembantu Gubernur, accompanied by Pak Syaiful Ramadhan to explain the planned work programme of FFPCP, and explore ways to improve coordination. 6 March 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Ferdinand Lubis accompanied by counterpart Syafrul Yunardy, Dinas Kehutanan visited Sekayu to meet Bpk, Ir. H. M. Umar Nawawi , MM (Forest Service Chief) and Ir. H. Alex Noerdin, SH (District Secretary). The purpose of the visit was to assess the current status of institutional fire management capacity, levels of trained personnel and the adequacy and condition of suppression resources in view of current and future fire management needs. 8 March 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Ferdinand Lubis accompanied by counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin, Dinas Kehutanan travelled to Kayu Agung to meet BUPATI District to brief him on the work of FFPCP and to review current state of equipment supplied and staff trained by FFPCP in 1998. 9 March 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Ferdinand Lubis and counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin meet with staff from Sribunian forestry company (HPH) to determine current status of their activities in OKI District. 12 - 15 March 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Ferdinand Lubis accompanied by counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin, Dinas Kehutanan travelled to Muari Enim and Lahat to meet with Forest Service district chiefs and District Secretaries and to carry out the preliminary fire management capability assessment within these two districts. 22-23 March 2001. The Project Leader as invited International Expert and FME Borger as Observer presented a paper, 'Forest Fire and Biodiversity Conservation in Sumatra' at workshop, 'Minimizing The Impact of Forest Fire And Biodiversity in ASEAN'. The programme was arranged and sponsored by the Forestry Department and the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, Brunei Darussalam in conjunction with ASEAN Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation, Los Banos, The Philippines, and was held in Bandar Seri Begawan. 29 March 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis, Dr M. Idris and counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin visit pulpwood plantation company PT Musi Hutan Persada (PT MHP). The purpose of the visit was to assess whether the significant training and fire suppression assistance received by this company during the period 1997 to 1999 from FFPCP has been sustained by company activities. Assistance stopped in 1999 because FFPCP was without a Fire Management Expert.

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1 to 4 April 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin meet with FME Liam Fogarty and Pak Widodo of the Berau Forest Management Project in Balikpapan to discuss ways to increase cooperation. 5 to 6 April 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin meet with FME Brad Sanders and Pak Asli, Pak Satya and Project Leader Helmut Dotzeaur of the Gtz Integrated Forest Fire Management Project in Samarinda to discuss ways to increase cooperation. 8 to 13 April 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin meet with FME Marc Nicholas and GIS expert Jerome Courboules of the South and Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project to discuss ways to increase cooperation. This visit included a field trip to inspect fire management structures at a remote plantation forest (HTI). 15 April 2001. FME Borger and Project Leader Bowen attend a meeting held in PEMDA Palembang, between the Governor of South Sumatra, the Minister of Forests, Bupatis of all Districts and senior forestry officials to outline forest management plans. 18 April 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis visit South Sumatra plantation forest company Musi Hutan Persada to inspect fire management systems and training and further mutual cooperation. 27 April 2001. FME Borger and Rural Institutions Experts Anne Gouyon and Jean Marie Bompard meet with Dinas Perkebunan to discuss land clearing fires and current systems of control. 1 May 2001. FME Borger meets with Ir. Jaya Arjuna (Leuser Development Programme) to discuss fire management training for Leuser staff. 2 to 5 May 2001. Ole Chavannes, Dutch journalist, visits FFPCP and is shown around areas of interest in South Sumatra. 15 May 2001. FME Borger meets with Deanne Shulman of the US Forest Service to prepare for the national and provincial fire simulation exercise. 15 May 2001. FME Borger and Deanne Shulman of the US Forest Service meet with Drs. H. Radjab Semendawai, SH., Sekretaris Daerah Propinsi Sumatera Selatan, other senior PEMDA staff and provincial heads of government departments to discuss South Sumatra’s involvement in the fire simulation exercise. 16 May 2001. FME Borger meets with Dinas Kehutanan and other provincial staff to establish a working group to prepare for the provincial involvement in the fire simulation exercise. 28 May 2001. FME Borger attends CIFOR meeting in Bogor about the “Underlying Causes of Fires” research project and potential follow up. 29 May 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis meet with CIDA FDRS staff in Jakarta to discuss fire danger rating in Indonesia.

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29 May 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis meet with fire equipment suppliers Krakatau Protec and Indovey in Jakarta to establish equipment availability and cost. 30 May 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis meet Mr Olle Wennstrom from the Haze Prevention Group in Jakarta to discuss common areas of interest and ways to cooperate. 30 May 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis meet Mr Marcel Steenis (GIS expert of Berau Forest Management Project) in Jakarta to evaluate fire danger mapping procedures developed by Fogarty/Steenis. 31 May 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis meet with Ir. Djoko Setijono (Director Forest Fire Control – Ministry of Forestry) and his staff in Jakarta to discuss work programme and issues of common concern. 31 May 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis meet fire equipment suppliers Sunspeed and Chubb in Jakarta to establish fire equipment availability and cost. 5 and 6 June 2001. FME Borger meets with Pak Syaiful Ramadhan to present a briefing on the provincial and local involvement and role in the fire simulation exercise. 11 June 2001. FME Borger meets with Pak Syaiful Ramadhan to outline fire simulation procedure. 12 June 2001. FME Borger, Project leader Bowen, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and Evi attend multi level fire simulation exercise held at the Governors Office in Palembang. A scene setting briefing (Powerpoint) is given to show fire development and weather and drought conditions. 13 June 2001. FME Borger meets with Pak Syaiful Ramadhan to debrief fire simulation procedure. 25 to 27 June 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis provide fire management training in Medan to Leuser Project staff. 26 June 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis attend Environmental Workshop in Medan where the Minister of Environment, Governor of North Sumatra and 200 senior government officials discuss environmental management. 27 June 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis attend press conference at the Leuser Office in Medan. The impact of fires and the concept of fire management, as well as hotspot information is discussed. The role of FFPCP is explained. 18 July 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis visit the Kenten BMG Weather Station to sort out weather observation access difficulties. 23 July 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis, Project Leader Bowen and Evi accompany Mr Dela Monte, European Union Ambassador and his staff on a field trip to Musi Hutan Persada. 25 to 28 July 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis, Anne Gouyon and Pak Syaiful Ramadhan attend the Community in Flames conference in Balikpapan.

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29 July to 2 August 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis, and counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin meet with project staff from the Integrated Forest Fire Management Project in Samarinda to develop training resources and discuss the Training of Trainers (ToT) course in Palembang. 10 August 2001. FME Borger and Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis, meet with Pak Robbie, Ir. Hasanuddin and Pak Taifik to establish a work plan and organising committee for the ToT course. 11 August 2001. FME Borger and Project leader Bowen meet with Wetland International staff in Palembang to discuss a new donor project planned for the peat swamp areas. 13 August 2001. FME Borger and Project leader Bowen meet with Marcel de Bruine in Jakarta. 14 August 2001. FME Borger, Project leader Bowen and Remote sensing expert Anderson attend ASEAN publications launch in Jakarta. 5 September 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and Remote sensing expert Anderson meet with SBA Wood staff to discuss fieldtrip to the SBA concession area. 12 to 15 September 2001. FME Borger, Project leader Bowen and counterpart Syafrul Yunardy visit SBA Wood plantation in OKI swamps. 4 to 5 October 2001. FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis, and counterpart Ir. Hasanuddin meet with project staff from the Integrated Forest Fire Management Project in Jakarta to continue to develop training resources for the Crewboss course. 22 to 26 October 2001. Training of Trainers course.

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Appendix C

Field Inspection Reports Sekayu Field Trip – 6 March 2001 General Information Staff: FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and Syafrul Yunardy Purpose: Assess the current status of institutional fire management capacity, levels of trained personnel and the adequacy and condition of suppression resources in view of current and future fire management needs. Local staff/officials: Ir H M Umar Nawawi, MM – Kepala Dinas (Forest Service Chief) Ir H Alex Noerdin, SH – Sekretaris Wilayah/Daerah Travel distance: ~ 130 km, 2 ½ hours by road, tar sealed all the way. Findings Reception • We were well received by both Ir Umar Nawawi (fair understanding of English, speaking

ability limited) and Ir Alex Noerdin (good grasp of English). Both officials showed an interest in the FFPCP project and how it could potentially assist their area in becoming able to effectively implement fire management. They also emphasised that FFPCP should be relocated to Sekayu to get closer to the action and become more effective.

Equipment • The fire equipment which was supplied by FFPCP in 1997 was stored in the urban fire

station, alongside an old urban appliance. This three bay garage is fitted with steel mesh security screens and does not have roller doors. The vegetation fire suppression equipment found was: • One slip-on unit (French design) of ~ 600 litres. Currently in good condition and with

at least an operational motor, pump not tested or seen in action. This unit is inadequately stored and does not appear to be used for vegetation fire suppression, indeed it seems that no suitable vehicle is available to transport this unit.

• Hand tools (beaters, McLeod tools and fire rakes) were sighted. No count was made, suffice to say that these tools appear to be unused and seem to be ‘discarded’ rather than stored.

Training • No training was carried out during this exploratory visit. • It appears that 60 staff were trained during 1999. Additional details are being sought. • At this stage staff training is pointless in the absence of a comprehensive fire

management system (i.e. there is no fire detection system, no protective clothing, no command system, no communication system – in short: no fire management capability)

Fire weather

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• A weather station was installed in 1997. This consisted of at least a mechanical recording raingauge and a Stevensons screen complete with relative humidity/temperature instrumentation. The raingauge has disappeared, stolen apparently, whilst the Stevenson screen thermometer housing has rotted and fallen over. No instruments were sighted.

General comments • Ir. Nawawi has recently transferred from South Kalimantan to MUBA. In South

Kalimantan he met Marc Nicolas and seemed familiar with the need for a fire management system. He requested that we carry out training of his staff. I suggested that we would train a number of instructors who would then pass this knowledge to the local staff. This suggestion was accepted.

• Ir. Noerdin is a man with a vision, which is nothing if not ambitious. He openly talked about his vision for the MUBA District, which includes leading the other districts within South Sumatra and indeed extended to being the best in Indonesia. He clearly sees decentralisation as the vehicle to achieve many of his dreams for the district. I was able to discuss the concept of integrated fire management and explore the different building blocks that are required for it to be effective. He grasped and seemed to except this quite readily. He was very enthusiastic about having at the very least a branch of FFPCP stationed in Sekayu and was quite ready to make office space available for this purpose. I reiterated that the project is based in Palembang but expressed our desire to work very closely with districts. The fact that we are not solely in the ‘hand-out mode’ was touched on and this was countered by the suggestion that the Supplementary Budget of October 2001 could make funds available. Ir. Noerdin was keen to discuss carbon credits and the potential of these to provide a significant income source. I explored this concept with him and explained that carbon sequestration must be accompanied by the protection of the current carbon sources in the district. These sources are the remaining forest and especially the peat resource. This allowed the carbon credit discussion to be tied firmly into the objective of FFPCP – i.e. the need for fire management capability at the field level. Again I felt that this concept was grasped and accepted.

Recommendations • Send written expressions of appreciation to both officials, confirming what was discussed

and reiterating preliminary decisions made. • Start the planning for how Phase 2 can work together with MUBA. • Present this draft plan to both officials by the end of June 2001. Bert Borger Fire Management Expert – FFPCP 7 March 2001

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Kayu Agung Field Trip – 8 March 2001 General Information Staff: FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and Hasanuddin Purpose: Assess the current status of institutional fire management capacity, levels of trained personnel and the adequacy and condition of suppression resources in view of current and future fire management needs. Local staff/officials: Ir. Sigit Wibowo – Kepala Dinas (ex chief) Bupati Secretary Travel distance: ~ 100 km, 1 ½ hours by road, tar sealed all the way. Findings Reception • The Chief of Dinas Kehutanan was not available to meet us as he was attending the Haj,

therefore we were received by Ir. Sigit, the ex-chief. Ir. Sigit provided a briefing on the district and the forestry areas of concern.

• The second meeting in Kayu Agung was intended to be with the Bupati to provide an overview of FFPCP and discuss our intentions for Phase 2. This seemingly simple objective was rather complicated by the attendance of several of the heads of departments (Estate Crops, Mining, Civil Defence) who had been invited by the Bupati with the intention of discussing our programme. Being an exploratory visit, designed to provide a general overview of FFPCP and especially to discuss Phase 2, meant that we were unable to provide a detailed programme. This initially caused some confusion until we were able to explain our objectives.

Equipment • No fire equipment was inspected. Some was inaccessible in a locked garage with the key

held by a person not on site, other equipment has been distributed to a sub-district office (Pampangan) and was to remote to visit.

Training • No training was carried out during this exploratory visit. • At this stage staff training is pointless in the absence of a comprehensive fire

management system (i.e. there is no fire detection system, no protective clothing, no command system, no communication system – in short: no fire management capability)

Fire weather • A weather station was installed in 1997 by FFPCP and training given in its use. This

consisted of at least a mechanical recording raingauge and a Stevensons screen complete with relative humidity/temperature instrumentation. The raingauge does not appear operational; neither does the relative humidity/temperature instrumentation. Some efforts have been made very recently to maintain this equipment – a new wooden base for the raingauge and new legs for the Stevenson screen due to the rotting away of the supplied base and legs.

33

General comments • Several of the forestry concession areas are now either non operational or closed (PT

Famili Jaya and Sribunian - logged over swamp forest) and as such are a significant fire hazard – especially if these areas are now being settled or encroached upon. A further visit to the OKI District is planned to inspect some of these areas.

• The OKI District is a priority for FFPCP because of its swamps. More time and efforts are needed to inspect these areas.

Recommendations • Send written expressions of appreciation to both officials, confirming what was discussed

and reiterating preliminary decisions made. • Carry out further field inspection within abandoned concession areas in OKI. • Start the planning for how Phase 2 can work together with the OKI district. • Present this draft plan to both officials by the end of June 2001. Bert Borger Fire Management Expert – FFPCP 15 March 2001 Muara Enim Field Trip – 12 March 2001 General information Staff: FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and Hasanuddin Purpose: Assess the current status of institutional fire management capacity, levels of trained personnel and the adequacy and condition of suppression resources in view of current and future fire management needs. Local staff/officials: Ir. Awaludin Wasir – Chief of Dinas Perkebunan and Kehutanan Muara Enim Ir. Muhono – (ex chief of Dinas Kehutanan Muara Enim – now chief of Forestry section Muara Enim (Sub-Dinas Kehutanan) Erman Robain S - 3rd Secretary Bupati Travel distance: ~ 185 km, 3 hours by road, tar sealed all the way. Findings Reception • The Estate Crops and Forestry Department in this district are merged. • Met all the staff of the above department and spent time discussing the FFPCP project. • The staff were very interested in our activities and when given the opportunity to ask

questions/discuss the fire situation in their district they participated, although I believe in a reasonably hierarchical manner – most senior first.

• The meeting with the Bupati Secretary was successful in that we were able to explain the FFPCP activities and the plans for Phase 2. The Secretary was supportive of the project and requested us to work directly with the Forestry and Estate Crop department.

34

Equipment • The only equipment held at Muari Enim is the FFPCP supplied slip on unit. This unit has

been permanently mounted (welded) on a flatdeck 4x4 Daihatsu vehicle. The vehicle was supplied by the Bupati. The slip on unit is in good condition with key available and a charged battery. Required suction hoses were also present and stowed on the vehicle. The vehicle is stored in an adequate and reasonably secure garage/depot.

Training • No training was carried out during this exploratory visit. • At this stage staff training is pointless in the absence of a comprehensive fire

management system (i.e. there is no fire detection system, no protective clothing, no command system, no communication system – in short: no fire management capability)

Fire weather • No weather station was supplied to this district. General comments • A number of issues were aired by the Forestry and Estate Crops staff. The potential

occurrence of an el Nino event this year was explained – the general staff feeling being that el Nino was going to occur this year. I suggested that the chances of occurrence for this year were only 30 percent.

• The FFPCP hot spot maps was commented on – the feeling being that these are not useful at the operational level because the hot spot location is not sufficiently accurate and can therefore not be found. Compounding this issue is the lack of money to go and investigate the hot spots.

Recommendations • Send written expressions of appreciation to both officials, confirming what was discussed

and reiterating preliminary decisions made. • Start the planning for how Phase 2 can work together with the OKI district. • Present this draft plan to both officials by the end of June 2001. Bert Borger Fire Management Expert – FFPCP 27 March 2001

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Lahat Field Trip – 13 March 2001 General information Staff: FME Borger, Ir. Akhmad Ferdinand Lubis and Hasanuddin Purpose: Assess the current status of institutional fire management capacity, levels of trained personnel and the adequacy and condition of suppression resources in view of current and future fire management needs. Local staff/officials: Ir. Eddy Chairal Iswan – Chief of Dinas Perkebunan and Kehutanan H Harunata – Lahat Regent Travel distance: ~ 220 km, 4 hours by road, tar sealed all the way. Findings Reception • Met the Head of the Forestry Department and several assistants and spent some time

discussing the FFPCP project, especially the plans for Phase 2. • I explained that the new emphasis will go on working at district level and that FFPCP is

looking for partners to cooperate with. • The meeting with the Bupati was successful in that we were able to explain the FFPCP

activities and the plans for Phase 2. The Secretary was supportive of the project and requested us to work directly with the Forestry and Estate Crops department.

Equipment • 1 HPHV pump (Tohatsu V46B5) donated by JICA in 1997. This pump was still on its

original packing base and appeared unused. The battery was missing and no instantaneous coupling have been fitted.

• The Slip-on-unit was not sighted but is stored at the Bupati office, now looked after by Civil Defence.

• All other fire equipment is located in a storeroom at the Dinas office – we were unable to view this because the room was locked with the only key being held by someone in Palembang. When this person will be back is not known!

Training • No training was carried out during this exploratory visit. • At this stage staff training is pointless in the absence of a comprehensive fire

management system (i.e. there is no fire detection system, no protective clothing, no command system, no communication system – in short: no fire management capability).

• In the way of training assistance I offered to train instructors, who would then in turn train either fire fighters and/or smallholders. This concept was stressed and seemed to be accepted – I do not intend to do anything that they themselves are capable of and/or must do for themselves.

Fire weather • No weather station has been supplied to this district.

36

General comments • A problem is that no budget has been allocated by the Bupati for fire suppression, this

means that hot spots are unable to be investigated. • The Forestry Department head is planning to divide his district into a number of sub-

districts (probably 4 or 5) and make fire management the responsibility of the sub-district. • His other plan is to work closely together with local farmers and train them to be

responsible for fire control on their own lands. • I explained the concept of integrated fire management and that many components are

required to make it work. The absence of any component can render the whole system inefficient or in the worst case totally ineffective.

Recommendations • Send written expressions of appreciation to both officials, confirming what was discussed

and reiterating preliminary decisions made. • Start the planning for how Phase 2 can work together with the Lahat district. • Present this draft plan to both officials by the end of June 2001. Bert Borger Fire Management Expert – FFPCP 28 March 2001

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Appendix D

Inter-Provincial Fire Management Study Trip Introduction Within Indonesia a number of long-term donor projects assist in vegetation fire management. In Kalimantan the GTZ managed Integrated Forest Fire Management Project (IFFM), is solely a fire management project. Two other projects, whose objectives are forest management with fire management as a component, were also visited. These are the Berau Forest Management Project (BFMP) and the South Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project (SCKPFP) – both European Union funded. The objectives of the study trip were to: • Lay the foundations for closer cooperation between fire management projects in

Indonesia. • Review and assess fire management structures in East and South Kalimantan. • Assess resources developed by each project that can be utilised throughout the other

project areas. • Discuss and evaluate common equipment requirements. • Expose Indonesian counterparts and fire officers to a range of fire management models,

approaches and implementation processes. This report details the fire management activities observed and/or carried out at each of the three projects. Berau Forest Management Project BFMP aims to demonstrate sustainable management of a tropical forest at an operational level. This six-year funded project commenced in 1996 and works through the para-statal company Inhutani I. Within the project area of the Labanan Concession practical forest management plans are prepared and implemented with Inhutani I. Management strategies are formulated based on research findings and experience. The environmental and economic sustainability is assessed using a variety of criteria and indicators including forest growth, yield and regeneration, as well as other social, environmental and economic factors. The focus areas are Tanjung Redep (Labanan administration) and Balikpapan (Samarinda, Berau, Longnah, Batu Ampar, Tering dan Melak). The BFMP pilot project in Tanjung Redep (Labanan Adm.) has an area of 83 000 ha and is located in lowland dipterocarp forest. BFMP has its main office in Manggala Wanabakti in Jakarta. Fire management is run from the Inhutani I office at Balikpapan. The FFPCP team spent three days with the BFMP team in and around Balikpapan hosted by Liam Fogarty (Forest Fire Management Consultant), Pak Widodo (Inhutani I counterpart) and Marcel Steenis (Remote Sensing and GIS Specialist).

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Rural development and fire causes Accessibility, forest condition and climate play a significant role in fire frequency and severity in Indonesia. BFMP has identified the rural development process that underpins the changes in fire frequency and severity. The following description, extracted from a BFMP report, clearly details the process in East Kalimantan. Phase 1 - Land allocation and road construction change the forest and fire environment: • Access created by roads constructed for forest or mineral exploitation (more or less

legal), plantation establishment, or to promote settlement. • Planned and unplanned, but relatively uncontrolled and administratively supported, forest

exploitation associated with all activities. • Sanctioned and opportunistic settlers, and land speculators rapidly spread to accessible

sites. • Land use conflict created by overlapping land allocation (because of poor land

administration), migration, settlement, and state sanctioned denial of indigenous rights. Phase 2 - Drought returns, but under changed circumstances: • Road construction and harvesting alter the forest structure - canopy openings change

forest water balance and promote scrub and grass growth. Previously low fire hazard forests now dry quickly and are flammable.

• ENSO-drought returns after a two to seven absence. • Fires ignited by many different people with many different motives (broadly classified as

need, greed, ignorance and maliciousness), and in many different locations. • Nearly all fires burn uncontrolled, first spreading through harvested forests and then in to

adjacent areas of primary forest. • Only the onset of rain quells the fires and finally removes the shroud of smoke. • Phase 3 - The process continues: • Burnt primary and secondary forests are salvaged logged - alang alang and scrublands

increasingly dominate the landscape. • Development extends along new roads and near towns. • Some transmigration areas thrive and expand, but most are poorly planned and supported;

and fail – ironically both outcomes put pressures on nearby forest areas. • Some plantation areas develop, but most fail because developers were primarily

interested in access to timber resources and reforestation funds. • New roads are constructed, new areas of forest harvested and new settlements

established. Phase 4 - Drought returns again: • The drought returns again. • Fires spread rapidly through the areas previously burnt (and often harvested). The

vegetation is a mix of flammable scrub and grasslands with an overstory of dead trees. • With the exception of managed plantations and smallholdings, no effort is made to

control fires in these areas. Grass and scrublands have no economic value and the public and private companies that have profited have moved on to new areas.

• History is repeated in the newly roaded and harvested areas, with secondary forests and adjacent primary forests are burnt.

• Smoke haze returns, suppression efforts are too little, too late. Only rain quells the fire.

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Coal Seam Fire Control A number of coal seams continue to smoulder underground in the SP HTI Batuampar-Mentawir concession area. These underground fires can start vegetation fires given the right conditions of dry fuel and favourable weather conditions. The extinguishments of these coal seam fires has been successfully carried by digging the burning material up and separating it from the unburnt coal. The cost of this operation is high when the coal seam fire is extensive and/or the seam is inaccessible and deep underground. Local reports of extinguishments cost for one fire are around Rp. 100 to 200 million. PT Inhutani has not extinguished coal seam fires in its area. The approach currently being taken by PT Inhutani is: • Identify locations of coal seam fires. • Assign the responsibility for control of the coal seam fire to the nearest forest station.

Watchmen from the station inspect the fire and take action to prevent fire spread, including removing the vegetation from around the fire site.

Fuel modification and firebreak PT Inhutani use both fuel modification and firebreaks to localize fires and prevent fire spread. Mineral soil breaks are constructed mechanically to a width of 30 meters. Fuel modification is practiced by planting strips of Gmelina arborea along both sides of the road. Fire management maps BFMP has emphasized map production for general forest management purposes and for fire management in particular. A time sequence of vegetation maps, based on Landsat imagery, has been produced for 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2000 to illustrate vegetation change over time in East Kalimantan. These vegetation maps, in combination with vegetation flammability data are used to produce Flammability Maps. Fire Danger Rating System The introduction of a locally appropriate Fire Danger Rating System is currently still under investigation. The two systems in use in Indonesia – Keetch-Byram Drought Index and the Canadian designed Fire Weather Index – are being evaluated. Equipment design and evaluation BFMP and PT. Inhutani have set up a mechanism to produce fire equipment locally. The steps are: 1. Identify tools and equipment required and able to be made locally. 2. Draw up the design and set the quality standards. 3. Identify a local supplier able to produce the equipment. 4. Negotiate a unit price. 5. Work with this supplier to ensure that items are manufactured to the set standard. Tools and equipment currently included are McLeod tool, fire rake and machete, and fire overalls. Other items being investigated are fire equipment trailers and tanker trailers.

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The approach allows local field conditions and the ergonomics of Indonesian workers to be included in the design, and it avoids the purchase of expensive overseas items. Furthermore it benefits the local economy. Other fire management activities undertaken by BFMP BFMP is, or has, carried out a number of other fire management initiatives. These are listed below without additional explanation or elaboration. • Investigate and recommend a Drought Early Warning System. • Carry out a communication assessment. • Undertake an audit of PT Inhutani’s institutional capacity and fire capability. • Carry out a “Train the Trainers” course with assistance from IFFM. • Organise a fire management study tour to New Zealand. Integrated Forest Fire Management, Samarinda IFFM/GTZ was established in 1994 to develop a forest fire prevention campaign and fire organisation for the Bukit Soeharto Forest Reserve. Following the 1997/98 fire season, which overwhelmed the project with press enquiries and emergency firefighter training, additional funds (~ US$5 million) were made available by the German Development Bank (KfW) for programme expansion and equipment purchases. The funds have been used to set up and equip 13 local fire centers and one provincial center. Fire equipment purchased is predominantly high quality Canadian made. IFFM have placed a strong emphasis on staff and counterpart training and have used overseas short duration work placements and attendance at overseas fire courses for this purpose. IFFM works together with local government at the Provincial level, HPH companies, NGO’s and local communities. The activities are focused to priority districts and divide into three main activity: Fire Prevention, Fire Operations and Fire Information The current project emphasis is on institutionalisation of fire management functions within the counterpart organisation. Community Based Forest Fire Management (CBFFM) A ‘community’ in the ‘Community based Forest Fire Management System’ is taken to be a group of people living in a distinct area who do not work for a HPH company, estate crop or other institution agencies. Most of these ‘communities’ do not have adequate knowledge and understanding of the causes and impacts of forest fires, although farmers use fire as an effective way to prepare land and farming is often the dominant occupation in communities. CBFFM: • supports village development processes. • supports communities to protect their areas of interest from unwanted fires. • is supported by the government. • supports communities’ cooperation with the local fire center and HPH, HTI, and estate

crop companies.

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Aspect of Community Based Forest Fire Management: • Village selection according to local conditions (fire risks, areas of concern etc.) • Rapid Rural Appraisal studies in communities selected. • Participatory planning at community level. • Institutional development. • Training of village fire crews. • Firefighting equipment. • Early warning, fire information, and communication. • Incentives and budgets. • Environmental education. CBFFM has achieved: • 80 villages integrated into IFFM prevention activities. • 30 village prevention campaigns and 12 crash programme events carried out at

community level, attended by 1500 people. • 10 Basic Firefighter training courses conducted, representing 40 villages. • Hand tools provided to 13 village fire crews in the Mahakam Ilir forestry district and to

16 villages in the Kutai district. • The Minister of Environment and the Governor commended Karya Baru village for its

outstanding fire prevention and suppression performance in 1998. Fire Prevention Activities andEenvironmentalEducation IFFM fire prevention activities are intended for the wider public and target not only rural communities but also urban dwellers. To achieve this, IFFM works together with institutions to: • Design and produce prevention material (posters, booklet, comics, and stickers by local

artist). • Cooperate with the Department of National Education and Culture to provide education

materials. • Run a nature camp programme. • Promote the fire prevention mascot ‘Si Pongi’. • Use TV and the TV star ‘kak Seto’ to spread the fire prevention message. • Cooperate with the mass media. • Promote the ‘Si Pongi’ show, exhibitions, and competitions. Equipment IFFM through KfW funding has given significant firefighting equipment and infrastructure to the East Kalimantan Province. The funding has been used to build 13 Fire Centers, with each center equipped with vehicles, pumps, handtools, protective equipment and spares. Communications IFFM has developed a Communication Plan (US$ 0.9 million) to build a communication system for East Kalimantan fire agencies. The Forest and Land Fire Management Bureau will run the communication system and facilitate the involvement of other government agencies (Estate Crop, Agriculture, etc.), HTI/HPH’s, and communities.

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Training IFFM have designed and run a range of training courses, from training of trainers, equipment maintenance training, to practical field exercises in local Fire Centers. Basic firefighter training has been delivered to Dinas Kehutanan staff, villagers, students, and military fire crews. Since 1995, IFFM has organised 47 operational training courses and trained around 2000 people. Detection Fire detection is the responsibility of the IFFM Fire Information System (FIS) section. FIS works together with the Indonesian Bureau of Meteorology (BMG) in East Kalimantan to calculate a drought index using the Keetch Byram Drought Index method. Currently seven weather stations are used for calculating the KBDI – most located near the coast. Monthly Drought Index charts are produced and distributed to all government institutions with an interest in fire management. South and Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project and visit to HTI Janggala Semesta, East Kalimantan Fire Reduction in HTI Janggala Semesta. The South and Central Kalimantan Production Forest Project (SCKPFP) are focusing their attention on activities assisting HPH and HTI companies to manage their forest areas on a sustainable basis. SCKPFP is working with PT. Aya Yayang Indonesia in South Kalimantan and PT. Dwima Jaya Utama in Central Kalimantan. The SCKPFP forest management program started in 2000. Forest fire prevention activities carried out by the two concessions are limited owing to lack of budget, however a high level of awareness of fire was observed in some of the village areas, no doubt related to personal contact with SCKPFP staff. Fire suppression HTI Janggala Semesta has a rudimentary fire suppression capacity, with trained staff and basic equipment located in the concession area. Firefighting equipment includes handtools, pumps and hose and some protective equipment. The equipment, stored in a dedicated fire store room, is generally in poor condition. The concession is also equipped with a heavy truck, tractor, and 2000 and 1500 liters water tanks. Most of these items were not operational. Fire Detection The fire detection system in the concession consists of two wooden fire towers with reasonable coverage of the planted area. Patrols and fire tower manning is based on rainfall, with one week without rain being the trigger to instigate patrols. Despite no budget for these activities from the company, they are still being carried out.

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Appendix E

Proposal. The Establishment Of An Indonesian Fire Resource Centre Within The Ministry Of Forestry, Directorate Of Forest And Estate Crops Fire Control Background: Indonesian authorities responsible for fire management, as well as donor projects with a fire management component are in the process of designing and developing locally appropriate systems, standards and procedures, fire suppression tools and training packages. Currently no national clearinghouse, or fire resource centre exists to collect, assess and disseminate this information. The inevitable result of this absence is a duplication of efforts, the loss of intellectual assets, a lack of national standards and the non-compatibility of fire equipment between, and even within provinces in Indonesia. Mission: “To make fire management information freely available” Purpose: “To collect, assess and make available fire management information and resources that will be beneficial to fire managers in Indonesia” Establishment tasks: • Develop a project plan for the establishment and on-going maintenance of the Indonesian

Fire Resource Centre covering: project sponsor, steering committee, working group, objective, tasks, responsibilities, budget, timelines and risks.

• Establish a steering committee that meets and monitors progress. • Establish a working group to implement the establishment of the Indonesian Fire

Resource Centre. • Collect and assess resources currently available that should be held/made available

through the IFRC. • Establish scope and mission of the IFRC. • Establish a review and acceptance process (e.g., review, assessment criteria) for training

resources and equipment standards to ensure an acceptable quality standard. • Define standards formats and templates for information compilation. • Establish a network of fire managers to contribute to the pool of available resources. • Design information dissemination processes. • Publicly launch IFRC and introduce a website (PR opportunity for the Minister of

Forestry). • Establish stocks of physical resources that may be requested by fire managers (eg.

approved training packages, training videos, slides, flip charts, fire prevention posters, publications).

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Business as usual tasks: • Resource the IFRC – define an ongoing budget. • Maintain close links with Indonesian fire projects and fire managers to ensure new

information is available to IFRC. • Promptly respond to information and resource requests. • Identify information deficiencies and initiate and support projects and initiatives to rectify

these deficiencies. • Promote IFRC to the stakeholders. • Maintain and update website. • Maintain and update physical resources inventories.

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Appendix F

Development Of A Training Package For Crewboss Level Training: Project Plan And Curriculum Project objective Develop a standard package that can be used by fire management organisations in Indonesia to provide crewboss training to their fire suppression personnel. This will include all the resources that are required to successfully organise and carry out the course. Background Fire suppression training at firefighter level has been undertaken by a number of donor projects, government organisations and private companies throughout Indonesia. The next, and equally important step, is to train the personnel who will take charge of the fire fighters during suppression activities. The specific role of the crewboss is to ensure the effective, efficient and safe deployment of personnel and equipment. Project logistics This project is being developed by a small team of fire managers and fire trainers who are responsible for the achievement of the objective within the specified timeframes. Team members are responsible for obtaining funding from their parent organisations to allow them to participate. The training package will be made available upon request to all suitable organisations within Indonesia at the cost of materials (videos, CD-ROM, course notes, tutor packs etc). Crewboss course objective To provide the theoretical skills and knowledge to take charge of a vegetation fire fighting crew and to be responsible for their safety, welfare and performance at the fire. Modules • Crew management • Fire behaviour • Work safety and first aid • Suppression strategy, tactics and techniques • Special crewboss skills Development partners • Forest Fire Prevention and Control Project – Palembang • Integrated Forest Fire Management Project – Samarinda • Ministry of Forestry – Directorate of Forest Fire Control (subject to confirmation)

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Stakeholders • All Indonesian government agencies and private companies with fire suppression

responsibilities. • All donor projects with a fire management component. • Haze Prevention Group. Timing for development July 2001 to February 2002 Outline of tasks and timing No Task Task details Timing Responsible 1 First development

team meeting Write project plan, decide crewboss curriculum, course logistics, timing and duration

July-August 2001

FFPCP: project plan Other tasks: All

2 Inform MoF – Fire Division in Jakarta

Write letter to Pak Djoko informing him about progress to date, detailing planned tasks (incl. project plan), and reiterating the invitation to attend next meeting

Deadline: 10 August 2001

FFPCP

3 Develop modules Write module material, design exercises and other training aids, select video, slides etc, prepare Powerpoint presentation

August and September 2001

FFPCP: Module 1 and 2, 5a, 5b IFFM: Module 3 and 4, 5c, 5d

4 Exchange drafts between FFPCP and IFFM

Draft modules, exercises, powerpoint presentations etc exchanged to allow review and comment before 2nd meeting

15 September 2001

IFFM and FFPCP

5 Second development team meeting

Review and confirm materials for each module, exercises and teaching resources, decide assessment procedures (pre and post course), plan pilot course

4 and 5 October 2001

IFFM, FFPCP and MoF-Jak

6 Prepare complete course package

This is the material that will be used for the pilot course

October and November 2001

IFFM and FFPCP

7 Pilot course Carried out to assess the material produced, run in Samarinda

January 2002 IFFM and FFPCP

8 Evaluation Evaluate pilot course, use trainee comments and observer reports

January 2001 IFFM, FFPCP and MoF-Jak

9 Final package produced

Incorporate evaluations into final training material

February 2002

IFFM and FFPCP

10 Launch package Publicise the existence of the course material and make the training package widely available

February 2002

MoF-Jak

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No. SUBJECT SPECIAL

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

THEORY PRACTICAL METHODS

1. Crew Management

After training, the participants should be able to: a. know the understanding

of leadership b. know the duties and

responsibilities of crew boss

c. know chain of command/organizational structure

d. know the Supervision Circuit

e. Able to lead various crew units

f. know how to prepare a daily report (daily report)

- Duties and Responsibilities (Fireline Handbook) - Understanding of Leadership (Module 241, S-201 Unit 1) - Chain of Command (Module 231) - Supervision Circuit (Module 241) - Documentation & Administration (Module 241,S-200Unit5,S-230Unit 5) - Types of Crew Units (handcrew, slip-on, pumps, patrol, dozer)

3 30min

15min

15min

30min

15min

30min

2 (in class) (decide

command structure for different size fires, prepare

briefings, carry out admin functions)

Lecture, Q&A, Discussions, Assignments, Simulations, Practical Exercises, Slides & videos

2. Fire Behaviour

- Weather/FDR - Fuels - Topography - Fire Triangle - Types of Fires - Parts of the fire - Heat transfer - Fire Spread - Fire intensity/ROS - Extreme fire behavior - Combined effects (Module 221, Module 1B1, Liam’s BFMP fuel descriptions, 2-3 scenario’s)

3

1(in class) (Scenario: slides of fuel/topo are shown – student groups describe

the fire environment)

Lecture, Q&A, Discussions, Assignments, Simulations, Practical Exercises, Slides & videos

3. Work Safety and First Aid

After training, the participants should be able to: a. know safety priorities b. know dangers in

suppression and ways to overcome

c. able to handle temporary situations, patients that are injured

- Safety Priorities - Dangerous Situations (Module 211, USFS 10 & 18, common denominators, Malayasian 20, LACES, LCES) - Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - Injury Prevention - First Aid & Evacuation

2 5min 40min

15min

15min 15min

2 (in class) Lecture, Q&A, Discussions, Assignments, Simulations, Practical Exercises, Slides & videos

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4. Suppression Strategy, Tactics, & Techniques

After training, the participants should be able to: a. know the understanding

of strategy and tactics b. know the readiness and

equipment of crew boss c. able to identify

complete equipment and other needs for the crew

d. able to take decisions for changing crew members and equipment

e. able to do “size-up” in certain activities

f. know procedures activities in suppression

- Define 3 strategies - Define 3 tactics - Define suppression techniques (hand line, wet line, burnouts, etc) - Crew Boss Kit - Readiness and complete equipment of the crew (5x) - Initial Fire “size-up” list - Changing members and equipment based on fire environment - Procedural activities in suppression (Size-up to mop-up) (Module B1c (book 1), B1d (book 2), NZ module 231 (p14), 241 (p10), 251, also Malaysian info (ex Akedemi Bomba))

3 sessions 10min 20min 45min

5min 10min

20min 15min

15min

3 session Lecture, Q&A, Discussions, Assignments, Simulations, Practical Exercises, Slides & videos

5. Special Crew Boss Skills

a. map & compass usage and navigation

b. radio usage and communication techniques

c. burn-out skills and techniques

d. Fire Investigation

- map & compass use - radio usage/hand signals - GPS usage - burnout techniques - fire investigation

4 30min 45min 20min 55min 20min

2 Lecture, Q&A, Discussions, Assignments, Simulations, Practical Exercises, Slides & videos

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Appendix G

Training Of Trainers: Proposal For The Establishment And Oversight Of A Team Of Firefighter Trainers

Project objective To train selected staff from organisations with fire suppression responsibilities – both government and non-government - to train firefighters, and to support this group of trainers as they carry out training courses. Background Well-trained and adequately equipped firefighters are the backbone of any fire control organisation. In South Sumatra large numbers of trained firefighters are required if effective fire suppression is to be carried out during drought events1. The inaccessibility of many of the fires leads to larger fires; the shortage of water during droughts necessitates dry suppression techniques; and fires entering peat soil layers requires digging out and long-term monitoring, all greatly increasing manpower requirement. The aim is to establish and maintain a strong group of motivated and capable fire trainers to carry out initial training for core groups of firefighters throughout South Sumatra. The trainers will also give annual refresher courses and exercises for these core groups of firefighters. The trainers may also be used to carry out extra training courses in the anticipated high fire danger areas, when a drought has been predicted, to boost the number of trained firefighters. Project logistics This project is carried out through the establishment of a small organising committee made up of Dinas Kehutanan and FFPCP staff to plan and carry out the tasks. This team is responsible for the achievement of the objectives within the specified timeframes. The cost of organising and carrying out the actual training course, including bringing suitable tutors to Palembang, will be largely covered by FFPCP. In-kind assistance from Dinas Kehutanan is anticipated to cover fire equipment use. Individual trainee attendance costs such as transport to and from the training course, trainee allowances to cover ‘out-of-pocket’ expenses and other incidentals will need to be covered by the trainee’s organisation. On-going post-course tasks to establish and maintain the Fire Trainers Network, monitor training, encourage and motivate the trainers and document training will be undertaken by Dinas Kehutatan. Course date 22 to 26 October 2001

1 To give some idea of how many fire fighters are required to effectively control a moderate size fire consider the following article: “The Green Knoll blaze, suspected to have been sparked by a campfire, is burning a few kilometers, southwest of the town of Jackson. About 1,860 hectares have been scorched by the fire. By July 29, the fire was reported to be 60-70 percent contained, thanks to the efforts of more than 1,000 firefighters and the assistance of about one-fourth of the nation's air tankers. More information is available at the Grand Teton National Park and US Forest Service shared interagency website, http://www.tetonfires.com.”

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Outline of tasks and timing The project has three distinct phases, with the third phase being an ongoing task which must be continued if the aim of reaching an adequate number of firefighters in the province is to be achieved. Phase 1 – Preparation

Task Deadline Responsible 1 Establish organising committee 10/08/01 Joint 2 Write project plan 15/08/01 FFPCP 3 Initial discussions with potential training provider 15/08/01 FFPCP 4 Obtain Dinas Kehutanan support 16/08/01 Joint 5 Review task list and allocate tasks to organising

committee members, set deadlines 16/08/01 Committee

6 Confirm training course date 20/08/01 Committee 7 Draw up budget and decide allocation of costs to

participating organisations 24/08/01 Committee

8 Liaise with training provider and establish costs and responsibilities

23/09/01 Committee

9 Set course prerequisites and select participants, official invitation given to participants

24/09/01 Committee

10 Review training provider course material 31/09/01 Hasanuddin 11 Select venue 31/09/01 Committee 12 Organise teaching resources 07/10/01 Committee 13 Arrange accommodation and food 07/10/01 Committee 14 Organise field equipment 14/10/01 Hasanuddin 15 Arrange field location for practical exercises 14/10/01 Hasanuddin 16 Arrange transportation to field location 14/10/01 Hasanuddin 17 Organise official course welcome and opening 14/10/01 Pak Robbie

Phase 2 – Run the training course

1 Training provider carries out course according to agreed curriculum

22-26/10/01 Assistance from IFFM

Phase 3 – Ensure fire fighter training is carried out

1 Appoint a person to the role of coordinating the newly trained trainers

14/11/01 Dinas Kehutanan

2 Establish South Sumatra Fire Trainers Network (contact list, communications etc)

31/11/01 Dinas Kehutanan

3 Develop additional training resources (complete package) for trainers to use in the field (flip charts, OHPs, sets of tools for training, certificates, assessment resources, forms)

01/03/02 Joint

4 Motivate trainers to carry out training courses through regular contact and offers of assistance with the initial courses

Ongoing Dinas Kehutanan

5 Maintain a register of training courses run and persons trained

Ongoing Dinas Kehutanan

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Appendix H

Fire Management Training. Course Handout And Presentation Overview

Introduction to fire management 2 Vegetation Fires in Indonesia 2.1 Fire myths 3 Fire causes in Indonesia, land use and development 3.1 Specific fire causes 3.2 Fire patterns in Sumatra 4 Rainfall of North Sumatra 5 Fire occurrence in North Sumatra 6 Fire management 7 Fire behaviour 7.1 Weather 7.1.1 Rainfall 7.1.2 Wind 7.1.3 Temperature 7.1.4 Relative humidity 7.2 Drought 7.3 Topography 7.4 Fuels 7.4.1 Fuel arrangement 7.4.2 Moisture content 7.4.3 Fuel types 7.4.4 Comparative fuel flammability 7.5 Principles of fire behaviour 7.6 Principles of combustion 7.7 Types of fires 7.8 Parts of a fire 7.9 Fire patterns 8 Safety at fires 8.1 Dangerous situations 8.2 Survival

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8.2.1 Radiant heat 8.2.2 Smoke 8.2.3 Heat illness 8.2.4 Clothing 8.2.5 Food and drink 9 Fire suppression 9.1 Methods of fire attack 9.1.1 Direct Attack 9.1.2 Parallel Attack 9.1.3 Indirect Attack 9.2 Command structure 9.3 Communications 10 Fire equipment 11 Conclusion 12 Resources on the net

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Appendix I

Fire Simulation Exercise: Evaluation and Recommendations The following recommendations are based on observations made by FFPCP in their capacity as observers and evaluators at the 12 June 2001 exercise. The recommendations are specifically geared to improve the ability of the South Sumatra authorities responsible for forest fires to coordinate large-scale disaster events. Communications • At least two robust and independent systems must be available to communicate between

the different locations involved with managing the emergency. This may include phone and fax, radio and possibly an email/internet enabled computer system. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) should specify which system is the primary communication system and which systems are reserved for back up.

• All mission-critical communication systems require periodic inspection, testing and preventative maintenance. This must be carried out at each location that may play a role in managing the emergency.

• Communication into, from, and within the Disaster Management Team2 (DMT) must be controlled, with the clear objective of ensuring all pertinent information is available to all members of the DMT, and all members are aware of the actions/decisions taken.

• Logs of communication activities should be kept. This task was carried out very effectively during the simulation.

• Messages received should be responded to immediately with an acknowledgement. • All outgoing messages should be accompanied with a request for acknowledgement, with

a procedure for following this up if no acknowledgement is received. • Messages requesting information, resources or authorisation should be followed up to

ensure a response is received within a suitable timeframe. Management Structure • The DMT must be directed and controlled by one person appointed and authorised for

this task. Clear handover, length of shift, and task allocation procedures should be specified.

• Consideration should be given to the number of members that make up the DMT. A management structure should be restricted to no more then ten persons reporting to a controller. Additional expertise and assistance may be brought in when required.

• Each member of the DMT must have clear authority to commit resources of his/her organisation to achieve the overall objectives.

• The DMT should appoint a media liaison person to ensure enquiries are handled in a consistent manner and the public is kept informed.

2 In the 12 June simulation the Disaster Management Team was similar in structure to SATKORLAK. The make up of this team - responsible for coordinating the disaster response – may vary depending on the disaster type.

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SATKORLAK preparedness • Consideration should be given to establishing a disaster management room designed to

facilitate efficient disaster management. • Effective disaster management is aided by a common set of maps covering the complete

province. This set of maps should be readily available in the printed form as well as digitally and must be up-to-date and acceptable to all stakeholders.

• The DMT must be able to be activated and become operationally at short notice to effectively handle those disasters where there is no lead-up time. This requires initial and ongoing training of the members of the DMT as well as a continuation of simulation exercises.

• Each member of the DMT should consider preparing a list of available resources and contact details that may contribute to effective disaster management. In time there may be the opportunity to integrate these lists.

Everybody participated enthusiastically and the exercise highlighted the need for many agencies to work together when fire disasters occur in South Sumatra. This was the first time that such an exercise had been tried in Indonesia and the results were of considerable benefit. Bert Borger Fire Management Expert – FFPCP 13 June 2001

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Appendix J

Climate Assessment and Drought: The Occurrence And Severity Of Droughts In South Sumatra And The El-Nino Southern Oscillation Index Understanding the frequency, timing and spatial extent of critical periods of rainfall deficit is crucial to the planning of successful fire management and to the accurate mapping of fire hazard. The ability to predict droughts is of great value in fire-preparedness planning; a task that is currently attempted through the forecasting of ENSO events. To test if this method is valid, the frequency, timing and severity of droughts in South Sumatra are quantified and the occurrence of droughts over the last 50 years is compared to the values of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI).

Method To quantify the frequency, timing and severity of droughts and to examine the ENSO link:

1. A database of monthly rainfall since 1951 was constructed for the Palembang area. 2. Drought years in South Sumatra were identified. 3. The severity of the drought was scored. 4. The occurrence of drought was compared with SOI values.

Drought quantification A drought is defined as, “A period of three or more consecutive dry months (less than 100 mm of rain per month), and where the total rainfall for the three month period is less than 200 mm”. The measure of Drought Severity is based on a combined score that reflects: (a) the length of the drought, and (b) the amount of rainfall that was received during the drought.

• Drought Length Score 3 consecutive months of drought – score 1

4 consecutive months of drought – score 3 5 consecutive months of drought – score 5

• Rainfall Score (three month period) - 0-19 mm – score 5 20-39 mm – score 4 40-59 mm – score 3 60-79 mm – score 2 80-99 mm – score 1 > 99 mm – score 0 The Drought Severity Score (1-10) is the addition of the Drought Length Score (1-5) and the Rainfall Score (1-5).

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Results There have been fifteen droughts in South Sumatra since 1951 of which nine were associated with ENSO events (Table 1). The drought years, drought severity and the SOI are shown in Figure 11.

Table 1. Droughts in South Sumatra since 1951.

Year Drought duration

Drought period

Drought Severity (length + rainfall

score)

El Nino Y/N

El Nino period

1953 3 months Jul-Sept 1 (1+0) Yes May-Sep 1957 3 months Apr-Jun 1 (1+0) No 1961 4 months Jul-Oct 6 (3+3) No 1963 5 months Jun-Oct 9 (5+4) No 1965 3 months Jun-Aug 2 (1+1) Yes Jun-Nov 1967 3 months Aug-Oct 2 (1+1) No 1972 4 months Jul-Oct 8 (3+5) Yes May-Oct 1976 4 months May-Aug 3 (3+0) Yes Jul-Sep 1977 4 months Jul-Oct 3 (3+0) Yes May-Sep 1982 3 months Jul-Sep 1 (1+0) Yes Jun-Apr 83 1987 5 months Jun-Oct 5 (5+0) Yes Feb-Sep 1990 4 months Jul-Oct 3 (3+0) No 1991 5 months Jun-Oct 9 (5+4) Yes Mar-Oct 1994 3 months Jun-Aug 1 (1+0) Yes Mar-Oct 1997 5 months Jun-Oct 10 (5+5) Yes Apr-Nov

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Figure 10 Southern Oscillation Index, droughts and their severity in Palembang (1951-2000). Note: the SOI scale has been reversed with negative values at the top of the graph. A SOI of less than or equal to negative 10 indicates an ENSO event.

Conclusions

• There were 15 droughts from 1951 to 2000. • The average duration of a drought was four months. • Droughts commonly occurred from June/July to September/October. • Droughts are likely to occur in South Sumatra one out of three years. Severe

droughts (i.e. Drought Severity Score of six or greater) are likely to occur on average one in ten years.

• The occurrence of drought is closely correlated to ENSO, although drought severity and ENSO severity are less closely correlated.

• Ten out of the fifteen droughts coincided with an ENSO event (67 %). • Droughts also occurred in South Sumatra without a corresponding ENSO event.

Based on this information, it is reasonable to assume that droughts will continue to occur in South Sumatra and that at least one drought every decade will be severe. It is also clear that not all droughts can be predicted by monitoring the status of the SOI; one third of droughts in South Sumatra have occurred in non-ENSO years. Fire management systems must be cognisant of drought predictions based on the forecast of ENSO events, while also recognising that drought do occur in the absence of ENSO events. Accurate and timely ENSO forecasts, as well as a comprehensive Fire Danger Rating System to identify the onset of droughts, are essential tools to ensure preparedness measures are implemented.

-30

-20

-10

0

10

20

30

1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998

Year

So

uth

ern

Osc

illat

ion

Ind

ex (

SO

I)

-10

-9

-8

-7

-6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Dro

ug

ht

Sev

erit

y

SOI (Average May-Sept)

Drought event and severity

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Appendix K

Fire Management Assessment Workbook Sections from the workbook Section 5 – Staff and training (PJ = professional judgement; CL = checklist) Section/ Element

Element Guidelines Scoring method

Possible points

Points scored

5.1 Staff assigned to fire management roles.

Y/N 20

5.2 Fire management staff adequately trained.

PJ 30

5.3 Specific job descriptions and responsibilities for fire management staff prepared.

Y/N 20

5.4 Firefighters trained in basic fire suppression skills.

Fire behaviour, fire safety, equipment use, suppression methods.

Y/N 30

5.5 Crewbosses trained in crew management and advanced firefighting skills.

Training should include theory and practical aspects of crew management, fire safety and fire behaviour, suppression techniques and command and control.

Y/N 30

5.6 Fire suppression commanders identified and trained.

Incident commander, Logistics manager, Planning manager and Operations manager, Sector boss.

PJ 40

5.7 Sufficient crewbosses and fire suppression command staff for the number of trained firefighters.

Minimum ratio: At least 1 Crewboss to 10 Firefighters. 1 Fire command staff to 3 Crewbosses.

PJ 30

Comments

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Section 6 – Community engagement Section/ Element

Element Guidelines Scoring method

Possible points

Points scored

6.1 Surrounding communities are encouraged to be actively involved in fire management.

The company has identified the communities and its leader(s) and has processes for talking to them. Issues of concern are discussed and solutions found.

Y/N 30

6.2 Communities have an awareness that fire poses a threat to the company estates.

PJ 20

6.3 Communities are trained for fire prevention and suppression and are rewarded for this role.

Y/N 40

Comments

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Section 7 - Equipment Section/ Element

Element Guidelines Scoring method

Possible points

Points scored

7.1 A comprehensive inventory of all fire equipment has been prepared.

Must identify types of equipment, location and ownership status

Y/N 20

7.2 Replacement and maintenance is planned for all owned equipment.

Condition of equipment must be checked and recorded, with budget allocation obtained to ensure state of readiness is able to be maintained.

Y/N 20

7.3 Equipment is stored in dedicated storage areas.

Storage area protects equipment from the weather, insect attack and inappropriate use. Equipment is stored to allow ready identification and access. Access to the equipment store is readily available.

PJ 40

7.4 Sufficient equipment is available (owned or readily obtained from other sources) to deal with fires.

This subjective assessment must take into consideration fuels, estate area, prevention effectiveness, climate, topography, fire history and likelihood of simultaneous multiple fires.

PJ 100

7.5 Sufficient manual equipment is available at each location for the number of firefighters.

This includes hand tools and backpack pumps.

PJ 30

7.6 Equipment is marked to allow easy identification of ownership.

Colour coding of equipment, and/or a record of equipment numbers.

Y/N 20

7.7 Personal Protective Equipment is available for each firefighter.

This should include cotton or fire retardant clothing, helmet, adequate footwear.

PJ 100

7.8 Pumping equipment is complete and stored in kits.

Checklist 3 CL 100

7.9 Fuel is stored safely and the fuel type can be identified.

Fuel containers must be metal or special fuel holding plastic. A colour coding or labelling system should be used to

Y/N 30

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identify fuel type. Suggested colour codes are: diesel (yellow), straight petrol (red), 25-1 2-stroke (blue), 50-1 2 stroke (black)). These colours must also be painted on the pump fuel tanks.

7.10 Suppressants and retardants are available.

Class A foam and/or soap capsules, and retardants should be available. The ability to mix these chemicals with water must be available (inductor, hydroblender, storage tanks for batch mixing etc)

PJ 30

7.11 Fire equipment standards are set and adhered to.

Hose coupling, hose size, pump type.

PJ 30

Comments

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Section 8 – Fire Danger Rating Section/ Element

Element Guidelines Scoring method

Possible points

Points scored

8.1 Fire danger is assessed based on weather observation and/or fuel moisture content.

Daily weather observations, during and immediately before the period when fires can be expected, are made. Weather elements observed must be those required to calculate fire danger using either the Keetch Byram Drought Index or the Fire Weather Index.

Y/N 50

8.2 Sufficient weather stations are used to obtain fire danger for the estate.

PJ 30

8.3 Fire danger class determined from fire danger rating system. Information disseminated and displayed on fire danger boards.

Y/N 20

8.4 Operations and fire prevention activities guided by fire danger level.

Y/N 30

Comments