Jakarta to come down hard on fire starters

Tougher new laws in the works, says minister
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 25 Jul 09;

JAMBI (INDONESIA): Indonesia, which is in the grip of a worsening dry spell, is preparing to pass tough new laws against fire starters.

Its Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Rahmat Witoelar, said the new legislation would give his ministry greater powers from September to deal with anyone involved in illegal slash-and-burn activities, instead of having to rely on other government agencies.

Using fire to clear land is illegal in Indonesia, but lack of enforcement has been a constant criticism of its efforts to tackle the problem.

The fires are primarily linked to plantation and pulp paper companies and individual farmers.

'We will be getting handcuffs of our own... It may sound dramatic but I think this is where the greatest need is. It shows that we mean business.'

The minister was speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony with his Singapore counterpart to mark the handover of an air and weather monitoring station in Muaro Jambi yesterday.

It is one of three in the regency funded by Singapore under a $1 million joint effort with the Jambi government to tackle smoke haze.

The three facilities, operational since December last year, measure wind speed and direction, rainfall, temperature and relative humidity. Hourly readings of the level of air pollution will be relayed to officials in Jambi and Singapore.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said that this collaboration has scaled up the capability of the Jambi officials to detect and monitor hot spots and smoke haze.

'They now have the tools to plan ahead in terms of dealing with fire-prone areas within this district.'

The monitoring stations are one of seven programmes identified under the two-year plan, which covers areas such as legislation and enforcement, and early warning and monitoring.

The next phase will work on managing peatlands, which become fire-prone stretches of land when the water table falls.

Dr Yaacob said: 'Let us not pretend that we can solve this overnight. It really needs a change in the entire ecosystem so that if a fire does break out, the peatland will not contribute towards it.'

The project involves, in part, encouraging farmers to turn to aqua-culture, in the hope that a thriving fish export industry will provide the province's population of 2.7 million with an alternative to slash-and-burn farming.

Mr Witoelar also raised concerns about the El Nino weather pattern, which is developing over the equatorial Pacific Ocean, bringing back the haze.

'It is a fact that this year's dry season will be a severe one. If El Nino were to strike, I am sure there will be some fires, but nothing compared to 2006,' he said.

'We will try to mitigate it by not adding any man-made fires.'

Of more immediate concern to the Indonesian government was the impact of the impending dry season on the agricultural industry, said the minister.

Going forward, Dr Yaacob said Singapore would keep its relationship with Jambi going and would also be prepared to work with other similarly affected provinces to 'share our experience'.

Thanking Singapore for its contribution, Mr Witoelar said that the Jambi-Singapore collaboration showed that commitment by local government was critical to making a real difference.

But the effectiveness of tougher laws has been called into question. Mr Didy Wujanto, head of Jambi Natural Resources Management, said burning made more economic sense to plantation companies driven by the bottom line.

'The companies do not want to invest money to prevent fires. Instead, they try to keep costs low by asking farmers to clear the land using fires,' he said.

Forest-fire makers to face jail under new environment law
Antara 25 Jul 09;

Jambi, (ANTARA News) - Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said his office would not hesitate to arrest and send to prison the perpetrators of forest and land fires after the issuance of a new environment law next September.

He said here over the weekend the new law which would be issued on September 8, 2009 would give the authority to the office of the environment ministry to arrest the perpetrators of forest and land fires in the country.

"The office of the environment ministry has the authorities not only to coordinate with security officers but also to arrest directly those who burn forests and land bushes," he said.

He said that his office could directly fix police lines at the areas affected by fires and hand-cuff the perpetrators.

In the meantime, haze has begun this week to blanket a number of areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Haze and fog blanketed Pekanbaru city after the air over the Riau provincial capital was clear of haze due to heavy rainfall in the small hours of Sunday.

The dense haze and fog had prompted the attention of activists of the Tsu Chi Foundation in Pekanbaru. They went down into the streets distributing masks to passing motorists.

They also distributed the masks in residential complexes like Kuantan Jaya, in Pekanbaru city.

However, the heavy downpour on the small hours of Sunday cannot put out the flames raging in the peat land in Pekanbaru. Smoke was still seen billowing into the sky of Panam, Rumbai and Kulim.

Data of the Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Office (BMKG) of Pekanbaru, obtained from the monitoring by the NOAA 18 satellite, show that the forest and land fires were still raging in a number of areas in Riau province.

In Kalimantan, Indonesia is cooperating with Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam to protect Kalimantan (Borneo) through their `Heart of Borneo (HOB)` program.

The `Heart of Borneo` program was a natural resource conservation and sustainable utilization program, Hendrik Segah, HOB Coordinator of Central Kalimantan, said here on Friday.

The HOB program is aimed at protecting the sustainable utilization of one of the world`s remaining best forests in Kalimantan for the welfare fo the current and future generations.(*)