Illegal logging and drainage of peat-swamps forest

The PSF in Indonesia is originally resistant to fire as they are waterlogged and flooded. But illegal loggers dug canals to flood logs across these PSF to the nearest rivers so they can transport these logs easily. The oil-palm plantation also drains their peatland in order for their crops to grow. This causes the peatland to dry up and makes it susceptible to fire.

Drained peatland in Indonesia

Image: http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/Multimedia/photos/2010/July/draining-peatland/

Land Clearing

This is found as the main reason for the fires. Many of the farmers or corporation used fire to clear the land to prepare for their crops as it is the cheapest and a very simple method. This is by far the most common and convenient method of land clearing and it is typically referred to as “slash and burn” whereby they chop down the tress in the area and set the place on fire. This way the fire would burn off any plants or organism in the area making it fertile and suitable for plantation. This resulted in about 70% of fires in Indonesia being found in plantation fields.

Arson

Sometimes fires are used as a weapon to resolve or claim back the use/tenure of the land. These cases is especially prevalent in areas with valuable resources whereby large corporation had obtained use for these land but the small local farmers are unhappy and hence retaliate by setting fire to the land.

Image: http://mptinpalestine.blogspot.sg/2012/11/settler-arson-outside-burin.html

Accidental fires

Accidental fires account for a small percentage of the fires and accidental fires can occur due to carelessness of human behaviors  Discarded cigarettes and unprotected cooking fires can often start a fire if unattended.

Image: http://cigarettesmokingnews.blogspot.sg/2011_03_01_archive.html