Unquantifiable damage caused by Asian wildfires

Spero News via IRIN: Wildfires may not get the attention of earthquakes and cyclones but their destructive potential is considerable and warrants further attention, experts warn. “We are seeing more and more really big fires,” Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) forestry officer Pieter van Lierop told IRIN. “The control of these fires has become an issue of high importance, not only because of the increasing number of casualties and amounts of area burned, but also because of its link with other global issues, like climate change.”

Up to 56 million hectares of land are destroyed by wildfires each year in Asia, according to FAO. Since 1970 wildfires have caused an estimated US$11.6 billion in economic damage in Asia, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Disaster Database EM-DAT.

Densely populated areas and widespread use of large-scale agricultural fires to clear land for farming make the region particularly vulnerable to such threats, van Lierop said. But there is more. “The impact of… anthropogenic [man-made] impacts of increased population growth and higher demand for new agricultural areas, aggravates the risk of extended wildfire situations,” said Johann Goldammer, director of the German Research Institute, the Global Fire Monitoring Centre (GFMC).

…The combination of land conversion fires and unusually dry conditions from El Niño droughts, led to the outbreak of wildfires throughout Southeast Asia in 1997-1998, forcing some 200 million people in Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to seek medical assistance….

Satellite view of 2006 fires on Borneo, via NASA