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The article focuses on the global impact of forest fires in Indonesia. It notes that the uncontrolled burning of large areas of peatland has created palls of smoke on an almost annual basis. It indicates that the tropical peatland fires are generally caused by illegal human activities such as land clearing and use of fire as a weapon in land tenure. It stresses the devastating effects of the massive fires of 1997-1998 on human health, local and global climate, wildlife and the region's economy.

Sphingomonasspp. of α-proteobacteria often play a role in assisting the development of microfloral communities under adverse soil conditions. Using a Frateuriasp. as an indicator for bacterial growth assay, we investigated the bacterial growth-promoting factor in the culture fluids of Sphingomonassp. EC-K085. This factor was successfully isolated and identified as linear (R,R,R,R)-3-hydroxybutyrate tetramer (HB4), having a hydroxy-end and a carboxy-end group. When 28 μg of HB4 was charged on a paper disc, impregnated Frateuriasp. cells in modified Winogradsky agar medium exhibited a promoted cell growth to form a clear colony emerging zone after a 2-day incubation.