Indonesia's forest fires

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Twenty five years ago in Indonesia, some of the worst forest fires in history devastated the environment and resulted in a smog which engulfed South East Asia for months. The fires, which were set deliberately, burned out of control for months. Mesdiono Matali Samad, known as Memes, worked on the Indonesian Red Cross relief effort helping people in East Kalimantan, Borneo. He's been speaking to Laura Jones.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Nambulanta Combo and I'm so excited to tell you that my podcast,
0:04.8	Dear Dota from the BBC World Service, has won podcast of the year 2022
0:11.6	at the British Podcast Awards.
0:13.6	Dear Dota is a collection of letters and stories offering advice and wisdom for life.
0:19.3	It's sometimes funny, it's sometimes sad, but it's always insightful.
0:24.6	Just search for Dear Dota wherever you found this podcast.
0:30.6	Thanks for downloading the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service,
0:38.0	with me, Laura Jones.
0:40.4	25 years ago in Indonesia, some of the worst forest fires in history
0:45.3	devastated the environment and resulted in a smog which engulfed Southeast Asia for months.
0:52.7	In 1997, fires had taken over a massive part of the Indonesian forest in East Calamantan,
0:59.8	part of the island Borneo.
1:03.7	At that time, we saw forest burning as high as 10 meters,
1:08.0	especially in Suharto Hill and Kutai National Park.
1:11.7	We saw big trees burning.
1:13.7	I can still see it.
1:16.1	The World Wildlife Fund called it an international catastrophe.
1:20.4	Desperate efforts are being made to try to stop an environmental disaster.
1:25.4	Huge areas of land have been destroyed by forest fires on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
1:31.4	The smog caused by the blazers has spread across much of Southeast Asia.
1:36.0	The pollution in places like Malaysia is so bad that experts are warning people could die.
1:43.0	Borneo is an island full of forest,
	...

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