Fire

Fire is commonly used in Indonesia to clear land for swidden agriculture and large-scale oil palm developments. While fires can be contained they have often become widespread and damaging. This has particularly been the case during the El Nino events of 1982/3, 1987, 1994 and 1997/8. 

Sekala is currently putting together a spatial fire database that includes the geographic extent of Borneo, Sulawesi and Papua for the Nature Conservancy (TNC). This database will be used to better prevent, detect and control damaging wildfires on these three islands.