Land use and vegetation fires in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia

In Indonesia, vegetation fires occur every year in the dry season. To determine where and why fires occur, the natural and cultural landscape features that influence the location of fires were analysed. We investigated the probability of fire occurrence as a function of predisposing conditions and ignition sources, such as land use, land use zoning, accessibility or land cover, to understand the spatial determinants of fires. The study area is the entire province of Jambi, central Sumatra, Indonesia. This province has a diverse setting of actors (small- and large-holders), land cover types and land uses. Fires were extracted for 1992/1993 from National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA-AVHRR) satellite data. The results of the spatial statistical analysis show that fire occurrence in Jambi Province in 1992/1993 was determined both by predisposing conditions (mostly climate, elevation and suitability for specific tree crops) and human-related causes (presence of transmigration projects and land allocation to specific land uses). National policies are thus a major driving forces of fires through land allocation. Road accessibility is only an important determinant of fires in forests. Few fires seem to be accidental. While logging companies control fire during their exploitation of concessions, logged-over forests and forests allocated to production but not yet under use have many fires. In 1992/1993, large- and small-holders were likely to be both responsible for fire occurrence. These results highlight the large influence of land use and policies on vegetation fires in Indonesia. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.