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

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