Indonesia battling tough peatland fires

Firefighters sent to Sumatran hot spots amid fears of haze
Straits Times 14 May 11;

JAKARTA: Indonesia has sent 120 firefighters to battle blazes in Sumatran peatland areas, amid mounting fears about the return of the haze season in the region.

Peatland fires can burn for days and release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Even when extinguished on the surface they can continue burning underground and reappear days later.

'The smoke comes from fires in peatland areas in Riau province,' Indonesian Forestry Ministry fire control official Deni Haryanto told the French news agency, Agence France-Presse.

He said the fires were sparked by the clearing of land for oil palm plantations.

'Our satellite monitoring shows that the fires in Rokan Hilir of Bengkalis district in Riau province have been on and off since they started on Monday,' Mr Haryanto said.

Antara news agency said visibility dropped sharply in the morning yesterday at the airport in Pekanbaru, in Riau, forcing at least two flights to be delayed.

But the number of hot spots, according to Antara, had dropped from 46 on Tuesday, to nine yesterday morning.

Indonesia's government has outlawed land-clearing by fire, but weak law enforcement means the ban is largely ignored. The haze season usually occurs each year from June to September, which is the dry season in Indonesia and also a time when farmers clear their land using the slash-and-burn method.

A meteorologist in Riau province, Mr Ardi Tama, on Wednesday warned that the choking smoke could last until August this time around.

The worst haze to hit the region took place in 1997. In 2006, it was so bad that Malaysia was forced to close Port Klang and declare a state of emergency in Klang and Kuala Selangor.

Malaysia's Health Ministry yesterday advised the public to cut down on outdoor activities as air quality remained out of the good range on the pollutants index, Bernama news agency reported.

The authorities reported moderate air quality in 31 areas, with the air pollutant index hovering between 51 and 100. Among the worst-hit areas were Port Klang, Bukit Rambai, Malacca and Port Dickson on the west coast of the peninsula.

Many areas, including Port Klang and Shah Alam, registered unhealthy air quality levels on Thursday but the situation improved later in the day because of a downpour.

Malaysian meteorological officials have forecast more hot and dry weather for the next few weeks.

Bracing themselves for the worst, officials in Kuala Lumpur have issued an appeal for greater coordination of a regional ministerial committee given the task of combating the haze problem. Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are members of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

Asean's efforts to tackle the annual problem saw nine of its members ink the 2002 Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

Only Indonesia has yet to ratify the accord, although Environment Minister Gusti Hatta in February said he was confident that Jakarta would do so by the end of the year.

Indonesia battles forest fire on Sumatra island
Yahoo News 13 May 11;

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia has sent 120 firefighters to battle blazes from peatland areas that are causing unhealthy levels of pollution in neighbouring Malaysia, an official said.

Authorities in Kuala Lumpur said on Thursday air quality had reached 104 in Port Klang, on a scale which rates 101-200 as unhealthy. Elsewhere in central Selangor state, 29 areas had "moderate" readings.

"The smoke comes from fires in peatland areas in Riau province," forestry ministry fire control official Deni Haryanto told AFP.

The fires are used to clear land for palm oil plantations, he said.

"Our satellite monitoring shows that the fires in Rokan Hilir of Bengkalis district have been on and off since they started on Monday," Haryanto said.

Fires on peatland can burn for days and release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Even when extinguished on the surface they can continue burning underground and reappear days later.

Indonesia's government has outlawed land-clearing by fire but weak law enforcement means the ban is largely ignored.

Indonesia is widely considered the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, largely due to deforestation from forest fires and logging.