![]() Examples are found all across the Study area Fire has been frequently documented as a deliberate tool for land conversion. Several studies have also documented the strong spatial association between fires and land use changes (Fujisaka et al., 1996, Ehrlich et al., 1997, Eva and Lambin, 2000). The causes of fires in the wet tropics have been described by many authors (Malingreau et al., 1985, Goldammer and Siebert, 1990, Crutzen and Goldammer, 1993, Barber and Schweithelm, 2000, Giri and Shrestha, 2000). Further, more specific regressions were developed to focus on specific land cover types. Fourth, a multivariate logistic regression model was developed to quantify the relations between landscape attributes and fire occurrence. Third a cross-table analysis between fires and landscape variables was conducted to analyse the spatial associations between fires and landscape attributes. Second, measurable proxy variables were identified to represent the processes and actors identified in the conceptual model. The study aims at addressing six specific questions: (i) Where are fires taking place? (ii) Is forest more threatened by fires than other land cover types? (iii) Does accessibility play a major role in fire occurrence? (iv) Are small-holders or large-holders mainly responsible for fire occurrence? (v) What is the influence of current land use on fire occurrence? (vi) Do government policies on land allocation play an important role in determining vegetation fires? First, a conceptual model was built to represent our current understanding of the interactions between fires, landscape factors and land managers. The main emphasis of this paper is on social, economic and political factors which determine fire occurrence. The objective of this study is to understand the major spatial determinants of fires in a normal (non-El Niño) year to infer the underlying causes of biomass burning in the Jambi Province, Sumatra. Identifying the proximate causes of fires would help to understand why and when people use fires. This requires a good preliminary understanding of the causes of burning, and of the natural and cultural landscape features that influence the location of fires. This made clear that the use of fires needs to be regulated, especially during dry years. Blame was put on the combination of dry conditions caused by El Niño and the frequent use of fire by large- and small-holders to clear land. As an exceptional event, large vegetation fires raged throughout the Indonesian archipelago in 19, causing a smog blanket covering over 3 million km 2 (Stolle and Tomich, 1999), with economic losses estimated at over 4.5 billion US$ (Schweithelm et al., 1999). Fires can occur naturally or can be used as a tool to clear land for agricultural purpose (e.g. They occur every year in the dry season and are characteristic of wet tropical forest ecosystems (Goldammer and Siebert, 1990). Vegetation fires are a normal phenomenon in Indonesia. These results highlight the large influence of land use and policies on vegetation fires in Indonesia. In 1992/1993, large- and small-holders were likely to be both responsible for fire occurrence. 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. Road accessibility is only an important determinant of fires in forests. National policies are thus a major driving forces of fires through land allocation. 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). Fires were extracted for 1992/1993 from National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA-AVHRR) satellite data. This province has a diverse setting of actors (small- and large-holders), land cover types and land uses. The study area is the entire province of Jambi, central Sumatra, Indonesia. 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. To determine where and why fires occur, the natural and cultural landscape features that influence the location of fires were analysed. In Indonesia, vegetation fires occur every year in the dry season.
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