Global Biomass Burning: A Case Study of the Gaseous and Particulate Emissions Released to the Atmosphere During the 1997 Fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

The roles of biomass burning as a global phenomenon and as a contributorto the global budgets of atmospheric gases and particulates arereviewed. To assess the environmental and health impacts of forestfires, knowledge of the gaseous and particulate emissions produced inthe fire and released into the atmosphere is required. Extensive andwidespread tropical forest and peat fires swept throughout Kalimantanand Sumatra, Indonesia, in 1997. The fires resulted from burning forland clearing and landuse change. However, the severe drought conditionsresulting from El Nino caused small land-clearing fires to become largeuncontrolled wildfires. It has been estimated that a total of 45,600km(2) burned between August and December 1997. The gaseous andparticulate emissions resulting from these fires are estimated. Theemissions of CO2, CO, CH4, NO,, and particulates from the 1997Kalimantan and Sumatra fires exceeded the emissions of these speciesfrom the Kuwait oil fires of 1991.