ABSTRACT
In September 1997 smog from forest fires burning in the islands of Indonesia blanketed large areas of South-East Asia. At one time the fires, which raged across more than 1.5 million acres of forests, affected up to 70 million people in six countries. The consequences for the region ranged from mild inconvenience to economic catastrophe and long-term health hazards. The most immediate impact was the effect on South-East Asian tourism; for a brief period business dropped by over 90 per cent in some tourist areas. Airports closed and flights were cancelled and production of some foodstuffs was forecast to fall. The largest cost however may well be to long-term health with an increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases and cancer. Exceptionally large scale, the 1997 catastrophe was in fact a repeat of past forest fires in Indonesia. Many of the fires ignited accidentally, but a long period of drought had increased the vulnerability of the forests to accidental conflagration. Indifferent management of forest resources by the Indonesian state and by international logging companies had left brushwood and commercially valueless trees strewn on the forest floor which acted as tinder in the long hot months.
