Indonesia: Pekanbaru`s air very unhealthy due to haze

Antara 9 Mar 14;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - Haze triggered by forest and plantation fires has caused the air quality in Pekanbaru, Riau Province, polluted and very unhealthy.

"The haze problem now is worse than that in 1997 which occurred for only one week. Currently, Pekanbaru has been covered by haze for over one month," he Suliwanto, a local resident, said here on Sunday.

The Pollution Standard Index (PSI) over Pekanbaru on Sunday reached more than 200, indicating the air was very unhealthy, according to data of the Riau Haze Emergency Response Task Force.

In Bengkalis and Siak districts, the PSI level hit the record of more than 500 Psi, which was categorized as very hazardous.

Over 40 thousand people have been infected with respiratory infection in Riau, particularly in Siak, Bengkalis, Dumai and Pekanbaru.

Fires have razed a total of 14 hectares of forest and plantation areas in Riau.

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.

The meteorological, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG) reported that on Sunday (March 9) at 5 am, there were 368 hotspots of forest and plantation fires across Sumatra Island.

Of the 368 hotspots, 327 hotspots were detected in Riau Province, consisting of 112 in Bengkalis, 56 in Meranti Islands, 27 in Indragiri Hilir, six in Indragiri Hulu, 19 in Dumai City, 15 in Rokan Hilir, 67 in Siak, and 25 in Pelalawan.

Around 71 percent or 183 hotspots in Riau were believed to be set deliberately to clear land for plantation.
(Uu.F001/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH

Haze reduces visibility in Pekanbaru to 50 to 70 meters
Antara 9 Mar 14;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - Haze from forest and plantation fires reduced the visibility in Pekanbaru to around 50 and 70 meters on Sunday.

"The weather today is very bad because of the thick haze. The government has set up a haze emergency task force and conducted cloud seeding to make rains, but, in fact, the haze in Riau is getting ticker," Hendri, a motorist, said.

A number of shops on Tuanku Tambusai road were closed due to the thick haze that could affect peoples health.

Pekanbaru has been blanketed by haze over the last one month.

Head of the Riau Haze Emergency Response Task Force Brigadier General Prihadi Agus Irianto said that fires had scorched a total of 13,009 hectares of forest and plantation areas in Riau over the past six weeks.

The task force has managed to extinguish fires on 10,618 hectares of forest, plantations, and peatland areas, but most the the areas still produced smog.

Of the 11,138 hectares of forest area that were razed by fires across the Riau province, about 3,000 hectares were located inside the GSK-BB biosphere reserve, Brigadier General Prihadi Agus Irianto, the head of the Riau Haze Disaster Response Task Force, said in Pekanbaru in Riau on Tuesday (March 4).

The Riau forest offices head, Zulkifli Yusuf, recently said the biosphere reserve is now badly damaged due to human encroachment and fires.

When visiting the biosphere reserve on Wednesday (March 5), Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan stated that 2,000 newcomers had encroached and set fires in the GSK-BB biosphere reserve.

"Currently, about 2,000 people hailing from the North Sumatra province have encroached in the biosphere reserve in the Riau province. They have cleared the forest area for oil palm plantation," Minister Zulkifli said at the Roesmin Nurjadin air force base in Pekanbaru.

The encroachment occurred in the biosphere reserves Core zone. "We strongly suspect that they were deliberately sent to Riau to encroach in the biosphere reserve," he said.

The task force, which has a total of 325 members, including 170 army officers, is trying to extinguish at least 12 hotspots detected in the biosphere reserve by dropping water bombs from four helicopters, including those belonging to Sinar Mas.
(Uu.F001/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH

Early Start to the Burning Season Catches Sumatra Off Guard
Muhammad Al Azhari Jakarta Globe 10 Mar 14;

Staff from Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper putting out a peatland blaze in Pelalawan, Riau, on Wednesday. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)

Pekanbaru, Riau. Weak law enforcement and delays in disbursing disaster mitigation funds are hampering efforts to prosecute culprits and extinguish forest fires burning in Sumatra, half of which are in concessions held by palm oil and paper companies.

“It felt like it was just yesterday we dealt with it. Now the haze has come back again for this year,” said Zulkifli Zaini, Indonesia’s forestry minister.

He said last year’s forest fires, which were almost all the result of deliberate action to clear forest areas for planting, eased in July-August, with the arrival of the rainy season.

However, climate change seemed to have brought the burning season forward this year, the minister said, with fires and haze in Riau reappearing in February, while other parts of the nation were still hunkered down under intense rains that in some cases caused flood disasters.

Riau province, part of Sumatra island, is home to major palm oil and pulp and paper producers, many of which belong to or supply companies, which are household names both in Indonesia and overseas.

Despite forest laws prohibiting clearing by fire, and also despite companies operating there pledging zero burning policies, the fires return every year, because it is such a cheap and fast method to pave the way for new paper-pulp and palm oil planting. Local farmers, who have been using such methods for generations, are suspected of lighting some fires to clear small family farm areas, but also of accepting payment to light fires on company plantations, providing the companies with a screen of plausible deniability of lawbreaking.

Thanks to near-real time data provided by agencies such as NASA, which has satellites taking photos every one or two days, it is possible to see where the fires are lit, and consider who stands to benefit from them.

“According to data from Global Forest Watch — a new online system that tracks tree cover change, fires, and other information in near-real time — roughly half of these fires are burning on land managed by oil palm, timber, and logging companies — despite the fact that using fire to clear land is illegal in Indonesia,” said research analysts Ariana Alisjahbana, James Anderson, Susan Minnemeyer, Fred Stolle and Nigel Sizer at the World Resources Institute.

WRI is a global environmental research organization with presence in more than 50 countries. Some of its offices are in the United States, China, India and Brazil.

Just more than half of the substantial fire alerts in Sumatra from Feb. 20 to March 3, at the height of the current haze crisis, came from pulpwood (paper) plantations (38 percent) and palm oil plantations (13 percent).



Naming names

The five WRI analysts, in an article titled “Indonesian Fires Bring More Haze to Southeast Asia” published on March 3, go on to provide the names of the companies, which Forestry Ministry data says are responsible for the concessions with the greatest number of significant fire alerts during that period.

For paper pulpwood concessions, five of the companies are affiliated with, or are suppliers to Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), an arm of the Sinar Mas Group, which produces dozens of paper products including LIVI and Paseo brand tissue paper. According to the WRI data, APP-connected companies with fires in their concession areas are: Sakato Pratama Makmur (161 fire alerts), Arara Abadi (102 alerts), Satria Perkasa Agung (62 alerts), Suntara Gajapati (57 alerts), and Mitra Hutani Jaya (10 alerts).

Aida Greenbury, managing director for Sustainability & Stakeholder Engagement at APP, did not reply an enquiry by short text message sent by Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

Another corporation that appears in connection with the WRI fires list, well known for its PAPEROne brand of consumer office paper, is Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (April), part of Sukanto Tanoto’s Royal Golden Eagle business empire. There were 21 substantial fires recorded on concessions held by Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper, which is a company owned by April, along with fires on concessions held by two April suppliers, Sumatera Riang Lestari (81 recorded fire alerts), and Rimba Rokan Lestari (14 alerts).

Among the palm oil concessions with the greatest number of forest fires, the WRI data lists companies with connections to Panca Eka Group (35 fire alerts), Sambu Group (30 fire alerts) and First Resources Group (4 fire alerts).

It should be noted that it cannot be concluded from the data provided in the WRI report that the listed companies are responsible for lighting the fires detected on their concessions, and that Forest Ministry concession location maps sometimes include inaccuracies.

State of emergency

Riau Governor Annas Maamum has declared a state of emergency in response to the fires and the resulting haze and respiratory risks.

Annas, in front of officials attending a coordination meeting on Wednesday, said he had encountered trouble making the declaration, which was a necessary step in enabling Rp 10 billion ($870,000) in disaster mitigation funds to be disbursed.

He said he needed approval from at least seven district heads in order to declare the state of emergency.

“This regulation gave me a headache. Can you imagine that there are district heads who didn’t want to declare a state of emergency because their areas were not on fire? ‘Why bother?,’ they may think. I want this regulation to be reviewed so that one district declaring a state of emergency is enough [to allow disbursement of emergency funds],” said Annas, a long-time Golkar politician and former head of Rokan Hilir district in Riau.

Riko Kurniawan, leader of the Riau chapter of The Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi), slammed the government’s troubled bureaucracy that delayed decisive action.

“This always happens years after year. They make noise only about the Rp 10 billion in funds? I can’t believe it. The legal framework to mete out firm punishment for forest crime is there. It is just a matter of enforcement. Why it is so difficult? Perpetrators of forest fires can be jailed for up to 10 years, according to the law,” Riko said.

Grim picture

According to a presentation by Riau Haze Emergency Response Task Force commander Brig. Gen. Prihadi Agus Irianto, more than 11,138 hectares have been affected by forest fires in Riau so far this year to March 4.

Fires were lit in 10 out of 12 districts, with the largest area burnt out in Bengkalis district (4,553 hectares), followed by Meranti district (3,498 hectares).

Meanwhile, according to Zainal Arifin, Riau health agency chief, as of March 5, there were 32,841 people reported to be suffering respiratory illness (ISPA) caused by the blanket of haze in Riau.

The haze was also responsible for 597 cases of pneumonia, 1,204 cases of asthma, 1,064 cases of serious eye irritation and 1,648 cases of skin-related problems.

Zulkifli, Agus Irianto and Zainal Arifin were in Pekanbaru on Wednesday, joining other high-level government officials attending a coordination meeting organized by the Riau Haze Disaster Mitigation Task Force at Roesmin Nurjadin military airbase in Pekanbaru, Riau.

Also attending Wednesday’s meeting were Riau Police chief Brig. Gen. Condro Kirono, Commander of the Roesmin Nurjadin air base Col. Andyawan, all 12 district heads and officials from the National Disaster Response Agency (BNPB), Forestry Ministry Fire Brigade (Manggala Agni) and the Nature Conservation Agency (BKSDA).

At the meeting, officials discussed efforts to tackle fires via water bombing, weather modification as well as discussing law enforcement and other procedures in handling forest fires in Riau.

Mea culpa

“In May last year, the president, our head of state, had to apologize to neighboring countries. That’s very embarrassing. Don’t let that happen again,” said Zulkifli, who is one of a handful of cabinet members who managed to keep his position during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s second term (2009-14).

Yudhoyono last year took the initiative to apologize to Singapore and Malaysia after acknowledging the negative impacts of the blanket of thick haze and smog that spread to Indonesia’s closest neighbors.

Despite the massive scope and number of forest fires this year covering over 11,000 hectares, so far this year the police has identified only 28 suspects, two of whom have avoided being taken into custody.

So far this year, the police have yet to declare any companies as suspects for commissioning illegal forest fires.

“Law enforcement is not the only solution to solve the fires,” Riau Police chief Brig. Gen. Condro Kirono said.

“Riau is huge. Preemptive actions, infrastructure preparation, coordinated efforts between government agencies, and participation from the private sector are important to solve the problem,” he said.

For his part, Zulkifli said he has urged the task force to establish a regular helicopter patrol, two or three times daily, to catch people lighting forest fires red handed.

“When they see smoke, go down, and pick up the perpetrator,” Zulkifli said.

However, this idea was quickly dismissed by the Riau Police chief, who said that in most cases once fires are large enough to be spotted, the perpetrators are no longer on the scene, leaving only secondary evidence to investigate.

An end in sight?

The irony for neighboring Singapore, which often bears the brunt of the annual haze, is that many of the companies suspected of benefitting from the fires are listed on the Singapore exchange.

That is why WRI’s report cites as cause of optimism a move by Singapore to propose a new law that would allow it to levy fines on companies — foreign or domestic — that cause transboundary haze events that impact the country.

“In the current draft bill, companies could face fines of up to $238,000 for contributing to haze that crosses national borders. This is a rather small fine for the large companies that operate in Indonesia, but the potential impact on their reputations sends a strong signal that businesses need to do a better job of fire prevention,” Ariana and colleagues said in the report.

Efforts by environment groups and journalists, both Indonesian and foreign, also have the potential to exert pressure to make fire-lighting a less attractive proposition for concession holders.

“These unseasonable fires are concerning, but there are also some positive, recent advances that could help prevent them from flaring up in the future. For one, stronger policy and market practices are disincentivizing and even penalizing burning and forest-clearing in Indonesia,” the WRI report notes.

Perhaps as a result of consumer campaigns among other strategies, palm oil and paper companies operating in Sumatra have begun making changes to the way they do business.

Many have pledged to buy from “fire-free” palm oil and pulp plantations, because they know that otherwise contracts with overseas buyers may be jeopardized.

April’s Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper says it has developed a Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS) or early detection strategy to prevent forest fires not only within their concession areas, but also outside.

Head of Sustainability and Fire at RAPP, Inra Gunawan said the FDRS system is a combination between satellite technology, monitoring through the internet and local action, both by staff and communities, to react quickly when they identify forest fires.

Inra says RAPP has deployed 875 staff and provided helicopters to do water bombings, 25 car patrols, 10 fire buster cars, 27 boats and 230 water pumps to extinguish fires in the region, measures which the company says have cost $6 million.

Jakarta Globe was invited by April to observe the fires in Riau.