Indonesia proposes to renew collaboration with Singapore to prevent forest fires

S Ramesh Channel NewsAsia 21 Nov 13;

SINGAPORE: Indonesia has proposed a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to renew bilateral collaborations with Singapore so as to prevent and reduce forest and land fires in Sumatra that cause transboundary haze pollution.

Singapore's Minister for Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan revealed this on his Facebook posting on Thursday.

The minister said he has thanked his Indonesian counterpart for the draft MOU, which Singapore officials will be studying further, and he is pleased that both sides are making progress in the matter.

Dr Balakrishnan met the Indonesian Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN climate change conference in Warsaw, where both ministers spoke about the progress of efforts to ease the haze problem following the ASEAN Leaders' Summit last month.

During the October summit in Brunei, ASEAN leaders agreed to adopt a regional haze monitoring system which will benefit the five countries which make up the Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
Thailand and Brunei.

The Haze Monitoring System includes digitised land use maps and concession maps of fire-prone areas that cause transboundary haze, which will be shared on a government-to-government basis.

- CNA/nd