AFP Google News 22 Oct 10;
JAKARTA — Indonesia has sent hundreds of firefighters to battle blazes on Sumatra island that have enveloped Singapore and Malaysia in a choking haze, senior officials said on Friday.
Dozens of fires were still burning across Sumatra on Thursday -- many lit by small landholders to clear trees from areas of peatland in order to grow oil palm or other crops.
Indonesia's forest fire chief Noor Hidayat said about 300 extra firefighters had been sent to the worst-affected area, Sumatra's Riau province, which lies opposite Singapore across the Malacca Strait.
"We have been making efforts to contain the fires. It's very difficult in the peatland areas," Forestry Minister Zulkilfi Hasan told reporters.
Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo telephoned his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa Friday to express the city state's concerns about severe air pollution, and offer help in controlling the fires.
Natalegawa "assured minister Yeo that Indonesia would address the haze problem, adding that many Indonesians in Sumatra are also affected," the Singapore foreign ministry statement said.
"This so-called haze situation is a classic case or example of a challenge that is trans-boundary in nature that cannot be solved simply by one country," Natalegawa said.
"It must be recalled that we have not had a similar case for more than three or four years," Natalegawa said, referring to previous success in the attempt to curb haze.
Malaysia has also been hit by the problem, which peaked on Sunday when 351 hotspots were recorded on Sumatra, but air travel has so far remained normal in all three countries.
The haze issue has resurfaced ahead of a summit meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders in Hanoi next week.
Malaysian Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai said Malaysia was in touch with the secretariat of ASEAN, which was helping establish a response.
"We are getting the ASEAN secretariat to coordinate a regional response to tackle the haze situation, which could worsen if the forest fires are not put out," he told AFP.
The most severe outbreak of haze took place in 1997-1998, when widespread fires caused nine billion dollars in economic, social and environmental damage, according to ASEAN.
Jakarta has outlawed land-clearing by fire but weak law enforcement means the ban is largely ignored in Indonesian provinces.
"Their weakest points are enforcement of the laws and lack of transparency," Joko Arif, Southeast Asia forest team leader at environmental group Greenpeace told AFP.
He said not enough information was being given to the public on the location and size of forest fires.
Indonesian haze increases Singapore health problems
Nopporn Wong-Anan Reuters 22 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Smoky haze hanging over Singapore from fires set in Indonesia was causing a significant increase in health problems, Singapore said on Friday, as it offered its neighbour help to put the blazes out.
Malaysia has also blamed the worst air pollution in the region since 2006 on the fires which an Indonesian official said were set deliberately to clear land for farming.
Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo telephoned his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa, to express concern about the haze and to reiterated Singapore's readiness to help.
"Minister Yeo informed Minister Marty that the PSI went over 100 yesterday and cases of respiratory problems including asthma had increased significantly," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
A reading above 100 on Singapore's PSI, or pollution standards index, is considered unhealthy.
The fires and smoke pollution are a regular occurence and can scare off tourists and disrupt transport, leading to strains in generally good ties in the region.
But Indonesia, the world's top palm oil producer which has a history of weak forestry law enforcement, appears unable to do anything about the problem.
Yeo's call came a day after Singapore's environment minister, Yaacob Ibrahim, spoke with his Indonesian counterpart, Gusti Hatta, urging Jakarta "to allocate the necessary resources, and implement timely and effective measures to solve the haze situation".
The haze, which started this week, is caused by fires lit to clear land for palm oil plantations on Sumatra.
"We have done our best to minimise the forest fires in those areas. But the law enforcement is weak," said Noor Hidayat, director of forest control at Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry.
"I think law enforcement apparatus must work harder and tougher towards people who did this. Shock therapy is needed here," Hidayat told Reuters Television.
"OPEN BURNING"
Indonesian television showed a wall of grey smoke rising from plantations and forest in Sumatra while the city of Pekanbaru was choked with haze.
Illegal land clearing by palm oil developers is common in Indonesia. Fires clear land quickly and reduce the acidity of peat soil, but release vast amounts of greenhouse gases.
The fires come ahead of an Indonesian plan to impose a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear natural forest from 2011 as planters are looking to expand plantations on the back of rising prices.
Malaysia's Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Uggah Embas told Reuters he had also written to urge his Indonesian counterpart "to take appropriate action to mitigate the problem" and to offer help to put out the fires.
Malaysian Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai added: "We know that there is open burning in Indonesia so we hope that Indonesia can take some measures to reduce open burning."
Air quality on Friday had improved with better visibility in both Singapore and Malaysia. In Singapore, the pollution level was judged "moderate," after an "unhealthy" level on Thursday while many schools in the Malysian town of Muar reopened.
The haze returned to the region less than a week after Southeast Asia's environment ministers met in Brunei to address the problem of fires.
The worst haze in the region was in 1997-98, when drought caused by the El Nino weather pattern led to major Indonesian fires. The smoke spread to Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand and cost more than $9 billion in damage to tourism, transport and farming.
(Additional reporting by Heru Asprihanto in Indonesia, Y-Sing Liau in Kuala Lumpur; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Q+A: Why has Southeast Asia's haze returned?
Nopporn Wong-Anan Reuters AsiaOne 22 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE - Fires set off to clear forest illegally on Indonesia's Sumatra island are sending clouds of haze across the Malacca Strait to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, causing the worst air pollution since 2006.
Apart from being a health hazard, the haze can inflict economic costs by scaring off tourists and disrupting transport and farming.
WHY IS IT HAPPENING?
Forest fires are a regular occurrence during the dry season in areas such as the Indonesian island of Sumatra but the situation has been aggravated in recent decades as timber and plantation firms, as well as farmers, start fires to clear land.
Indonesia has a long history of weak forestry law enforcement and illegal land clearing by palm oil developers is common. Fires clear land quickly and reduce the acidity of peatland soil, but they release vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the air.
The fires come ahead of an Indonesian plan to impose a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear natural forest from 2011 as planters are looking to expand plantations on the back of rising prices.
The fires are expected to burn as planters rush to grab land ahead of the moratorium.
Another part of the problem is under ground.
Southeast Asia hosts 60 percent of the world's tropical peatlands, most of it in Indonesia.
Peat soil is made up of decomposed plant material that burns easily.
Peat fires are hard to put out as they can smoulder underground and resurface, and produce thick haze and a high amount of carbon.
Because of weather patterns, smoke from the fires often blows into nearby countries, although Indonesia's own most populous island of Java, where the country's capital, Jakarta, is located, is generally little affected.
HOW BAD IS IT THIS YEAR?
In Singapore, a pollution index rose to an "unhealthy" level on Thursday.
Malaysia's index rose to a "hazardous" level the previous day.
The haze has brought poor visibility for ships in the Malacca Strait, forced hundreds of schools in
Malaysia's southern Johor state to close and shrouded Singapore's regional financial district in mist and smoke.
The situation improved slightly on Friday.
WHEN WAS THE WORST?
The worst haze hit in 1997-98, when drought caused by the El Nino weather pattern led to big Indonesian fires.
The smoke spread to Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand and cost more than US$9 billion in damage to tourism, transport and farming. More than 9 million hectares (22 million acres) of land were burnt, 6.5 million of which were forested areas.
The fire produced an estimated 1 billion to 2 billion tonnes of carbon.
WHAT IS THE REGION TRYING TO DO?
Spurred on by the 1997-98 fires, Southeast Asian countries signed an Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002, but it has been toothless since Indonesia, the source of most of the smoke, has yet to ratify it.
The pact calls for signatories to work closely in monitoring, mitigating and taking preventive measures in combating transboundary haze.
Government agencies in neighbouring countries have from time to time offered to help Indonesia fight the fires - for example by sending water-dumping aircraft and fire fighters or providing satellite technology to map fires - but Jakarta has not always accepted the help.
WHAT IS THE DIPLOMATIC FALLOUT?
The haze and its health and economic costs can strain the region's generally good ties.
The haze returned less than a week after Southeast Asian environment ministers met in Brunei to address the fires.
For now, Malaysian and Singaporean cabinet ministers have been measured in their response, telling Indonesian counterparts of their concern and offering to help. --REUTERS
