Indonesia: Team formed to hunt for land burners in Riau

Rizal Harahap, The Jakarta Post 13 Mar 14;

The Riau Police have established a team to hunt for forest and land burners as open burning activities have become more rampant in the province.

Excessive burning has aggravated thick clouds of haze affecting areas in Riau and has forced the provincial administration to extend its smoke emergency status until March 26.

The joint team comprising police and military personnel, forest rangers, as well as prosecutor offices and National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) officials, is divided into nine groups consisting of between 50 and 70 personnel each.

Riau Police chief Brig.Gen.Condro Kirono said similar teams were formed in the past.

“They all worked on their own, however. Now, they are united under one command,” said Condro, who is also deputy commander for law enforcement at the Riau haze mitigation task force.

He was speaking after dispatching the team in a ceremony at the Roesmin Nurjadin Air Force Base in Pekanbaru on Wednesday.

“We deliberately formed a team to hunt for alleged land burning perpetrators so that, from now on, law enforcement can be carried out widely,” Condro said.

He further said police and military personnel involved in the operation would be equipped with weapons to create a deterrent effect.

Two locations that will reportedly be the main targets of the team are Giam Siak Kecil biosphere reserve area in Bukit Batu district, Bengkalis and peat forests in Teluk Meranti district, Pelalawan.

Five groups have been dispatched to Giam Siak Kecil to hunt for thousands of illegal loggers who have destroyed the conservation area while the remaining four groups will be sent to Teluk Meranti to prevent fires in the peat forests from spreading.

“Teluk Meranti was one of areas that was worst hit by forest fires in Pelalawan,” said Condro.

There was a significant rise in the number of hotspots detected in Riau on Wednesday. According to satellite observations by the Pekanbaru Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the total number of hotspots in Sumatra had reached 2,390, 2,046 of which were in Riau.

“[On Tuesday] there were only 63 hotspots in Riau,” said the BMKG Pekanbaru’s head of data and information, Slamet Riyadi. (tjs/ebf)

Task force deploy 558 personnel to hunt down forest encroachers
Antara 13 Mar 14;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - The Riau Haze Emergency Task Force has deployed 558 personnel to hunt down forest encroachers and arsonists that caused forest, plantation and peat-soil fires in Riau.

"The deployment of hundreds of personnel is to strengthen the legal enforcement," Chief of the Riau Police Brigadier General Condro Kirono, in his capacity as the commander of the task forces legal enforcement unit, stated here on Wednesday.

The personnel include police officers, military officers, forest rangers and members of the intelligent agency, he pointed out.

The 558 personnel are divided into nine teams with each consisting of 62 people. The legal enforcement operation will be organized until March 26.

Four teams are deployed to Pelalawan District with the focus on Meranti Gulf that shares border with the Kerumutan sanctuary, where a number of hotspots were detected, he added.

The other five teams are deployed to Bengkalis District and they will particularly hunt down those who had encroached the Giam Siak Kecil-Bukit Batu biosphere reserve.

"The teams going to Bengkalis could also go to Rupat Island where a number of hotspots have been detected," he explained.

The Riau police have detained 36 people who allegedly set fires illegally to clear land for farming and plantation.

Of the 36 detainees, 16 were encroachers of the Giam Siak Kecil-Bukit Batu biosphere reserve.

The Riau military office has also detained a military officer identified by as Chief Sergeant Sudigdo alias Digdo, who was suspected of having financed the encroachment. (*)

Editor: Heru

Schools closed in Tanahdatar due to choking haze
The Jakarta Post 12 Mar 14;

The Tanahdatar regency administration in West Sumatra suspended school activities on Wednesday due to the thick and choking haze blanketing the city over the last few days.

“As air pollution has reached a very hazardous level, the authorities are forced to send students home from several schools so as to protect their health,” Tanahdatar Regent M. Sadiq Pasadigoe said on Wednesday as quoted by Antara news agency.

Desrizal, spokesman of Tanahdatar regency administration, said that all students from kindergartens to senior high schools had been instructed to remain at home.

"The school closures will be from Thursday to Saturday. If the haze problem worsens, the closures will be extended," he said.

Sadiq said that the thick haze in the regency was sparked by uncontrolled peatland and forest fires in neighboring Riau province.

The thick haze has disrupted the daily activities of local people with visibility dropping sharply and many residents suffering from respiratory illnesses.

“We've asked the residents to reduce outdoor activities,” said Sadiq, adding that he would encourage residents to pray for rains on Friday. (yln)

Thick haze disrupts flights in Riau and Bengkulu
The Jakarta Post 12 Mar 14;

Dense haze blanketing Riau, caused by haze forest and peatland fires from rampant slash-and-burn techniques for land clearance, forced authorities to suspend flights at Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport in Pekanbaru on Wednesday as the air-pollution situation deteriorated.

"From morning till noon not a single airplane attempted to land," Sultan Syarif Kasim airport duty manager Hasnan said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Despite the disruption, however, the airport remained open and the authorities would order closures if the facilities were severely affected, he said.

He explained that visibility at around 9:30 a.m. was only 300 meters, far below the minimum requirement of 1,000 meters. These conditions continued until noon, when the visibility increased to 600 meters.

Haze has disrupted flight activities in Riau for a month causing delays, diversions and cancellations of flights. In normal conditions Sultan Syarif Kasim airport accommodates around 80 flights per day, each carrying 100 to 150 passengers.

The haze problem not only disrupted flights to Pekanbaru, but also to Fatmawati Soekarno Airport in Bengkulu on Wednesday.

“Two flights [scheduled to arrive in Bengkulu] were diverted to Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport in Palembang [South Sumatra] due to the haze,” said Bengkulu Transportation Agency chief Eko Agusrianto.

Eko explained that it was impossible for the flights to land as visibility was only around 200 meters in Bengkulu. (atw)

Haze Forces Indonesian Province To Shut Down Airport
Bernama 13 Mar 14;

JAKARTA, March 13 (Bernama) --- Thick haze from land-clearing bushfires in Riau province of Sumatra led the closure of a main airport in the province on Thursday, China's Xinhua news agency reported an official as saying here.

The decision to halt operation of Sultan Syarif Kasim II airport was made by airliners following the worsening of feasibility that impaired operations, said transport ministry Bambang spokesman Ervan.

"The airliners decided to stop the airport operation today ( Thursday), tomorrow and the day after tomorrow as the feasibility is very short, it is only 400 meters," Ervan told Xinhua by phone.

"The resumption of operation would be done once there is a certainty" on the improvement of air quality particularly feasibility, he said.

Days prior to the closure more than 60 flight schedules had been aborted as thick smog worsened feasibility, according to Transport Ministry E.E. Mangindaan.

The thickening haze has also worsened air quality in the province, and the number of people suffering from respiratory trouble increased to a staggering 42,000, according to Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of national disaster agency.

Indonesia has scrambled to extinguish blaze in the bush as farmers or companies make way for plantations in Riau province, home to the world's largest palm oil industry. Satellite observation on Tuesday detected 145 hotspots in the province.

Indonesia has been battered by land-clearing bush fires since the 1990s, as the haze engulfed neighboring Asean countries and caused losses of several billion US dollars.

-- BERNAMA