The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

HCV 4.3 in the revised Toolkit draws attention to naturalecosystems that function to prevent or impede the spread of fire,or in other words, areas that functions as buffers betweenpotential sources of combustion and potentially highlycombustible stock.To evaluate the potential occurrence of HCV 4.3 areas in theProject Zone and nearby TPNP, the history of fires in and nearbythe Project Zone was examined using the 1995-­‐2007 ATSR WorldFire Atlas. This database uses remote sensing data from the ERS-­‐2 ATSR-­‐2 (http://earth.esa.int/ers/eeo9/earth_esa.html) todetect the presence of fires at night. The data provided areconsidered to underestimate the total number of large fires butare consistent over time and space, and thus allow comparisonacross studies.Using these data, fires were detected almost exclusively betweenthe months of August and December, and only during years thatcoincided with El Niño droughts, such as in 1997, 2002, 2004 and2006 (Table 14). Fires were most severe in number and extentduring 1997, which also coincided with the longest drought sinceWorld Fire Atlas data compilation began.Two concentrations of fire in the Project Area were detected, onein the south near Tanjung Rengas, in association with whatappears to be a grassland swamp of unknown origins (i.e., naturalor anthropogenic), and the other in the north, in association withan established oil palm estate on shallow peat (Figure 18). Theabsence of fires in non-­‐El Niño years suggests that fires areaccidental, rather than part of a deliberate policy to clear landwithin the Project Zone.75