January issue: South East Asia and Baltic special

The bulk of this issue is made up of collections of articles on the forest fire situation in South East Asia (pp. 4-56) and the Baltic countries (pp. 57-81). These are 2 contrasting areas, in the first of which there is too much fire and smoke, and in the second of which where nature conservationists and land managers are beginning to consider restoring fire in order to protect the cultivated landscape. The South East Asia section concentrates mainly on the 1997 Indonesian forest fires, starting with a report from the Indonesian Environmental Impact Monitoring Agency describing the land and forest fires, reviewing control measures, and evaluating national coordination efforts in combating the fires. Most of the fires are designated as caused by man (during both traditional and commercial forestry broadcast burning activities) and are, therefore, manageable and preventable; in 1997 they were exacerbated by the delayed onset of the monsoon. Recommendations are made for immediate and long-term activities. The rest of the articles on the 1997 Indonesian fires in the SE Asian section cover the UN assessment of the fires (including discussion of the role of the UN, international assistance to Indonesia, and environmental and tourism impacts), remote sensing of smoke and fire, Indonesian and regional initiatives in fire and smoke management and policy development, the 1997 wildfire season and the impact of fire management projects in Indonesia (Kalimantan and Sumatra), and reports from a special session of the Consultative Group on Indonesian Forests on the 1997 fires and from an international workshop on national guidelines on the protection of forests against fire held in Bogor. The remaining 2 articles in the SE Asian section are from Malaysia (an overview) and the Philippines (fire protection in Mountain Province). The Baltic section starts with an overview of the whole region (including a history of European regional smog from peat swamp burning in Germany), and contains overview articles from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the UK. The remainder of the issue contains the usual country notes (from Canada, Spain, Switzerland and the USA), news and reports.