Forest fires widespread in Kalimantan

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 3 Sep 09;

Fires have continued to raze thousands of hectares of forest across Kalimantan for the last two weeks, causing air pollution and prompting repeated closures of airports particularly in Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan.

The government said the cloud-seeding techniques conducted by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to help douse the fires had failed.

“Forest fires in Kalimantan remain alarming as they have been going on for two weeks and the number of hot spots is still high,” deputy assistant to the environment minister for forest and land destruction, Heddy Mukna, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Senior government officials will hold an “urgent” meeting in the Central Kalimantan capital of Palangkaraya on Friday to discuss measures to fight the fires.

Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar visited Palangkaraya last week to hand over water pumps to help the local government stop the fires.

The Forestry Ministry said the fires had affected 573 hectares of land in Palangkaraya in the last three days.

To curb forest fires, Central Kalimantan Governor Teras Narang has revoked a bylaw that
allows local people to clear land by burning. Burning is only permitted for land less than two hectares in size.

Teras warned he would rescind permits awarded to dozens of plantation owners in the province if they continued clearing their land by burning.

Hotspots in Kalimantan cause of Sarawak haze
The Star 4 Sep 09;

KUCHING: The haze has made a return here, the result of the 200 hotspots in neighbouring west Kalimantan.

State Natural Resources Environment Board (NREB) deputy controller Peter Sawal said the transboundary haze had adversely affected air quality in several divisions in the southern region.

“It was a bit hazy (yesterday),” he said. “The API (air pollutant index) in Tebedu (Sarawak-Kaliamatan border town) was 86 (on Wednesday) and in Samarahan, 69.’’

Sawal said the number of fires in Kalimantan – mainly open burning related to commercial farming – had doubled from last week’s 100 plus.

At its peak early last month, there were more than 600 hotspots there.

He added that there were no more local hotspots; a month ago there were some 170 statewide.

On the recent fires which destroyed thousands of hectares of forests in the central and northern regions, Sawal said the board had imposed compound fines of up to RM9,000 on some offenders,

He said the amount reflected the severity of the offence.

“Our regional offices are still investigating some of the incidents. We will wait for their reports and decide on the next course of action,’’ he added.