Indonesian president orders enforcement of laws to prevent land fires

Antara 27 Feb 14;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered enforcement of laws to prevent and tackle smog caused by forest or land fires especially against corporations to give a deterrent effect, a minister said.

Coordinating Minister for Peoples Welfare Agung Laksono said here Thursday that the law enforcement must be carried out quickly and effectively from investigation to trial in court.

This is important "to give a deterrent effect especially on corporations not individuals," he told journalists at the Presidential Office following a cabinet meeting, led by the president.

Agung said legal process must be taken against corporations that burn land illegally to clear it for business purposes as well as their owners domestic and foreign alike.

"Law enforcement is important. A total of 41 cases have been dealt with by the police leading to imprisonment from six months to eight years," he said.

Besides encouraging law enforcement the President has also ordered standard procedures for tackling and preventing forest or land fires so that they would not happen every year.

(Reporting by Panca Hari Prabowo/T.P008/Uu.H-YH)

(T.SYS/B/H-YH/B/R013) 27-02-2014 19:48:43

Editor: Priyambodo RH

COPYRIGHT © 2014

Riau Under ‘State of Emergency’ as Forest Fires Spread
Jakarta Globe 27 Feb 14;

In this photograph taken Feb. 16, 2014, a resident sprays water on a peatland fire in Pekanbaru, Riau province, on Indonesia's Sumatra island. (AFP Photo)

In this photograph taken Feb. 16, 2014, a resident sprays water on a peatland fire in Pekanbaru, Riau province, on Indonesia’s Sumatra island. (AFP Photo)

Jakarta. A state of emergency has been declared for Indonesia’s troubled Riau province after the forest fires that have raged for nearly a month continued to spread on Thursday, blanketing the region in dangerous levels of choking haze and threatening to reignite tensions over the nation’s inability to prevent what has long been an annual concern.

“I’ve been busy working on how to deal with the fire from morning until late at night,” Riau Governor Annas Maamun told the state-run Antara News Agency on Wednesday. “[I've declared] a state of emergency now. We’re not messing around.”

Indonesia has struggled to stamp-out the practice of slash-and-burn land clearing in Sumatra and Kalimantan in spite of international condemnation over the impact of spreading haze. The fires began to burn earlier this month as the dry season intensified in Riau province, prompting local farmers to set offending forest cover alight in an illegal, but locally acceptable method to prepare land for palm oil cultivation.

Local police have arrested nearly 40 people for setting the fires throughout the province in a show of force. But the impact of a few dozen arrests in a region where, at one time, fires burned on nearly 6,000 hectares of land remains to be seen. The fires showed signs of subsiding earlier this week as the number of hotspots dropped to 145 on Monday. But by Wednesday the blazes had spread again, with 747 hotspots recorded throughout Sumatra, Said Aklul, the head of Riau Disaster and Mitigation Agency, told the Indonesian news portal Liputan6.com.

“Most of them have been detected in Riau,” Said told Liputan6.com.

‘Twelve days’ to clearer skies?

The Riau governor allocated Rp 10 billion ($860,000) in relief funds and appointed Pekanbaru military commander Brig. Gen. Agus Irianto as head of an emergency task force — boasting at the time that the province’s fires would be completely extinguished in 12 days time. The state of emergency was expected to last two weeks, during which time local administrations would be expected to kick in as much as Rp 4.6 billion a piece to help fund the province’s efforts to stamp out the blaze.

Annas said his administration would keep an eye on the use of the funds, warning local officials of the repercussions of pocketing the money.

“The budget from the regional government should not be used for other purposes,” Annas told the Antara News Agency. “It should be used to put out the fire. It should not be corrupted.”

The state of emergency, and the funds associated with the status, is the largest government effort to combat forest fires since they began in early February. Last year’s haze may have sparked a diplomatic row with Singapore, but the central government, until now, has been reluctant to devote serious resource to fighting this year’s blaze.

The central government, after nearly a week of silence, agreed to send much-needed equipment and personnel to help the struggling province. Local disaster crews began to petition the Indonesian government for resources to combat the blaze last week, submitting an official letter on Wednesday after the situation worsened.

Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono announced plans on Wednesday to send military helicopters and personnel to help douse the flames. The central government was initially reticent to dedicate resources for aerial water drops, arguing that most of the fires were burning on peatland — making them resistant to typical firefighting methods. But as meteorologists predict another dry month in Riau, the risk of widespread fires and the return of last year’s cross-border haze pushed government officials to reconsider their stance.

“We will rent the equipment because according to the March weather forecast there will be a little rain [in Riau], but it will be dry again in April,” Agung said. “This makes it dangerous between April and August. We have to remain on alert.”

The National Disaster and Mitigation Agency (BNPB) planned to reach out to the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police for help.

“The letter to the Indonesian Military commander and the National Police chief would be sent soon,” BNPB secretary Fatchul Hadi told the Antara News Agency. “[We will] ask them to assign at least two battalions in Riau.”

The Indonesian Air Force already committed three aircraft for cloud seeding and aerial water drops, Roesmin Nurjadin Air Base chief Maj. Filpadri said on Thursday. A sizable crew of soldiers was also ready to assist firefighters in affected areas, he added.

“We are ready to assist the government’s efforts with the BNPB after Riau announced an emergency status regarding the fire and haze,” Filpadri told the local news portal goriau.com.

Tigers in the haze

The residents of Bukit Batu first had to flee their homes as flames spread to more than 2,000 hectares in the badly affected subdistrict. Now the villages, many crowded into evacuation shelters, have a new fear: Sumatran tigers on the prowl.

“This makes us even more scared,” Harun, a local security officer, told the Antara News Agency. “Not only is the smoke thick, but tigers have emerged from the forest.”

Reports of Sumatran tigers roaming the streets of Bengkalis district sent firefighters packing on Thursday after the flames spread to a tiger habitat at the edge of Bengkalis district. The forested area near the border of Bengkalis and Dumai City has long been home to a small population of Sumatran tigers. But when the fires spread the tigers fled the area, stumbling into nearby villages in search of shelter.

“This morning I received a phone call from one of my members saying that all the members on the ground were reportedly running away after spotting a tiger stalking the area with its cub,” M. Jalal, the local fire chief and BNPB chair, said on Thursday.

Two tigers were reported in Temiang Village, in Bukit Batu subdistrict, on Thursday. It was the third tiger sighting in the same village this week, Jalal said. In Barak Aceh, where 125 people have sought refuge in a shelter, the sight of tiger paw prints in the mud inspired panic among those displaced by the haze.

“Once night falls the people at the evacuation shelters are too scared to go outside on their own to pee,” Jalal said.

Disaster officials estimate that 3,629 hectares of Bengkalis had caught fire by Thursday, with the largest concentration of hotspots in Tanjung Leban, Bukit Batu. Firefighters have been working to douse the flames, but the crews plan to pull back until the tiger threat can be placed under control, Jalal said.

“We are aware that the tigers must have been scared by the thick layers of smoke,” he said. “That is why it is better for us to avoid them and report the incident to the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Center so they can secure the tigers.”

Still measuring the impact

The toll of this year’s haze continued to climb on Thursday as haze spread to nearby Padang, West Sumatra. More than 43,000 people have fallen ill in Riau by Wednesday while the air quality declined to “hazardous” levels in some cities, according to reports by the Antara News Agency.

“The air [pollutant] index today is at 500 PSI,” Dumai Health Agency head Marjoko told the Antara News Agency. “That means it is very dangerous for one’s health.”

One week ago the number of sick in Riau totaled some 22,000. By Wednesday that number had doubled to 43,386 people, prompting calls of concern from local health officials.

“Today the number is more than 40,000, this is really worrying,” Riau Heath Agency head Zainal Arifin told goriau.com.

Upper-respiratory infections were the most commonly reported symptoms, but reports of eye irritation, asthma attacks and pneumonia persisted. The Riau Health Agency advised residents to remain indoors until the worse of the haze passed.

The province-wide shutdown is taking an economic toll on the region. The Riau Chamber of Trade and Industry reported Rp 10 trillion in losses over the past two months after poor visibility affected transportation and the threat of illness brought productivity to a halt.

“The Rp 10 trillion loss was because of declining business productivity and disrupted transportation of goods and humans due to the haze,” chamber of commerce chief Viator Butar Butar told the Antara News Agency.

Flights at Pekanbaru’s Sutan Syarif Kasim II International Airport had to be delayed as visibility dropped to 1,000 meters. Flights out of Bandung, Jakarta and Medan were delayed Thursday morning.

“This morning at least three airplanes were delayed because of the haze,” the airport duty manager Hasnan told the local newsportal Riauterkini.com.

With the region’s drought continuing, the haze is expected to worsen in the coming days. Visibility in Padang already dropped to 700 meters in some places, prompting concern that, without a focused effort from the government, this year’s haze may continue to spread beyond Riau.

Strict law enforcement ordered against forest fire perpetrators
Antara 28 Feb 14;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - As haze shrouded Sumatras cities over the past two months, President Yudhoyono has ordered strict law enforcement to deal with forest fires mostly set deliberately and unlawfully to clear land for plantation and farming.

To give deterrent effect especially on corporations, law enforcement must be carried out quickly and effectively from investigations to trial in court, the president was quoted by Coordinating Minister for Peoples Welfare Agung Laksono in Jakarta on Feb. 27, 2014.

Legal sanction must be imposed against both domestic and foreign corporations, which were proven to have burnt forests illegally to clear land for business purposes, he stated.

Chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Syamsul Maarif stated that around 99 percent of forest and plantation fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan were deliberately set.

"There should be sanctions to stop recurrences. Slash-and-burn farming methods indeed exist in Sumatra and Kalimantan, but the most important thing is that it should be controlled," Syamsul Maarif noted in a statement on Feb. 28.

According to Maarif, the Indonesian police have named 23 suspects in Riau and 16 in Central Kalimantan for allegedly setting the fires deliberately.

"There are several factors behind their decision to set fires in plantation and forest areas, such as economic, social and cultural factors," he explained.

Dry rainy season in Sumatra and Kalimantan has triggered forest and plantation fires that produced haze. The NOAA 18 satellite on Feb. 27 detected 17 hotspots in Aceh, 12 in East Kalimantan, 10 in West Kalimantan, four in North Sumatra and fort in North Kalimantan.

This year, the worst hit province is Riau, which has suffered losses worth Rp10 trillion due to the haze.

In the province, hundreds of people fled to safer areas due to thick haze; several Sumatran tigers left their habitat as their habitat was on fire; 43,386 people suffered from respiratory problems, and many flights were cancelled as the visibility dropped drastically.

Taking into consideration the huge impact it has caused, the Riau provincial administration has declared a state of emergency effective from Feb. 25, 2014. It has categorized the forest, plantation, and peatland fires as an extraordinary event.

Earlier, of the provinces 12 districts/cities, seven districts including Bengkalis, Rokan Hilir, Indragiri Hulu, Indragiri Hilir, Siak, Pelalawan, and Meranti and Dumai city had elevated the fire alert level to a state of emergency.

Following the declaration of emergency, Commander of the Military Regional Command Brigadier General Prihadi Agus Irianto has set a target of 14 days, within which a special operation to extinguish the forest fires in Riau will be completed.

"We have set a target for the haze emergency response that within 14 days the fires will be extinguished," Irianto informed Antara, at the Haze Emergency Response Command Post, Roesmin Nurjadin Airbase in Pekanbaru, on February 27.

The Riau provincial police on Feb. 28 announced that 40 individuals have been named as suspects in the forest and plantations fires across several districts and cities.

"All of them have been detained after being identified as suspects for allegedly setting fires deliberately since the past several weeks," Senior Commissioner Estuning of the Riau polices commander of the plantation fire task force, informed the press.

The suspects were all individuals, she added. "The cases allegedly involving companies are still under investigation," she pointed out.

The Riau police that have set up a legal enforcement task force are currently investigating 31 fire cases in Riau, she explained.

All suspects are being handled by each of their respective regions such as Bengkalis, Meranti, Rokan Hilir, Siak, Pekanbaru and Dumai City.

She pointed out that the number of suspects might increase considering there have been many fire cases occurring in the province.

Riau Police Chief Inspector General Condro Kirono in Pekanbaru on Feb. 13 stated that the forest fire suspects were charged under Law No. 18 of 2004 on plantations, with a punishment calling for a maximum 10 years imprisonment, and a maximum fine of Rp10 billion.

Those arrested were also charged under Law No. 26 of 2007 on Spatial Planning.

In 2013, the Riau Police had apprehended 33 people suspected in the burning of forests that produced haze shrouding not only across Sumatras cities, but also parts of Singapore and Malaysia.

This year, the BNPB has allocated Rp300 billion to combat forest, peatland and plantation fires by land and air.

"The budget will be used according to the needs," BNPB chief Syamsul Maarif stated.

In addition to strict law enforcement, the key to overcome land and forest fires is information campaign and massive and total fire extinguishing efforts, Maarif pointed out.

Massive handling through the three operations must be done and, based on past experiences, it has been effective "as proven by the fact that the smog that spread to Malaysian and Singapore last year, was overcome within 1-2 weeks," he added.

The BNPB has held coordination meetings with ministries, legal enforcers, institutions, regional disaster mitigation services and regional governments.

To support the processes, a total of 1,524 military and police personnel have been prepared to conduct operations on land, water bombing and weather modification, he added.

"Indeed the operations are expensive, worth up to Rp100.38 billion. Efforts certainly will be more efficient and effectively through law enforcement and information campaign as preventive measures," he explained.

Two battalions of the Armys personnel and 1,755 personnel of the forestry ministrys fire brigade have been deployed to extinguish the fires.

Two BE-200 Amphibian aircraft, two Kamov helicopters, two Sikorsky helicopters, and four Bolco helicopter will be deployed to drop water bombs. Two Hercules C-130 and six Casa 212 aircraft will be used to modify the weather in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

During a ministerial-level coordinating meeting in the office of the coordinating minister for peoples welfare on Feb. 27, the chief of the meteorological, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG) announced that 70 percent of Indonesias region will begin to have drought in April, May, and June 2014.

This years dry season is expected to be drier than that of last year as Indonesia is going to experience El Nino phenomena.

Usually, forest and plantation fires are rampant in Sumatra in July-October, and in Kalimantan in August-October. So, the threats of forest fires are still far from over.
(T.F001/INE/KR-BSR/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH