Hotspot Horror: Lax enforcement against those seeking to circumvent forestry laws to blame for international ‘nightmare’, officials say
Farouk Arnaz & Sahat Oloan Saragih Jakarta Globe 18 Sep 14;
Jakarta/Pontianak. Thickening smoke continued to choke parts of Indonesia and its neighbors on Wednesday, a day after the government ratified the Asean Transboundary Haze Pollution Treaty, following a 12-year delay.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said it detected 1,276 active fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan on Wednesday.
“The fires in Kalimantan are concentrated in West, Central and South Kalimantan. In Sumatra, active fires were spotted in South Sumatra and Riau provinces,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in his Jakarta office on Wednesday.
The BNPB said it detected 599 active fires in Central Kalimantan, 252 in South Kalimantan, 193 in West Kalimantan, 195 in South Sumatra, 20 in Riau and 17 in Jambi.
The air pollution index continued to rise on Wednesday, reducing visibility at Riau’s airport to less than a kilometer, BNPB Riau observed.
“This means the smoke and drought disaster has disrupted our people, both in terms of health and activities, because several flights had to be delayed,” Sutopo said.
He added that 99 percent of the forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan were lit intentionally.
“More fires occurred between February and July than in previous years. This means the fires were also set off during the rainy season,” Soetopo said.
Typically, the number of blazes in Sumatra increase significantly between June and October, and in Kalimantan between August and October. In Riau, the number of fires increases between February and March, releasing a choking haze.
“The biggest natural forest fires in Indonesia occurred in 1997, during which El Ninowas a contributing factor. Today, 99 percent of the fires are intentionally set and 70 percent of them occurred outside forest areas,” the BNPB spokesman said.
Sutopo said the fires incur economic, environmental, political, health and other avoidable costs to society.
Economic losses incurred by the forest fires in Riau exceeded Rp 20 trillion ($1.7 billion), causing thousands of hectares of land to be burnt, 58,000 people to develop respiratory problems and disruption of students’ activities.
“This also does not begin to factor in the political costs in the form of protests by the Singaporean government, whose citizens are affected by the haze. Preventative measures are more effective than containing the fires,” Sutopo said.
“Throughout August 2014, the atmosphere became dryer and the risk of fires escalating out of control became greater. Slash-and-burn land clearing activities have caused fires to rage out of control. This nightmare may still continue through October.”
The number of fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan forests continues to increase, Sutopo said, while Riau saw a drop in the number of isolated blazes — just as likely an indication that the fires have merged as that they have been extinguished. On Saturday, the number of active fires detected throughout Indonesia stood at 351. Two days later, that figure was 1,694.
The BNPB is cooperating with the National Police, military, and local Forestry Agency units.
“We are cooperating to contain the fires by land and air with water bombing,” he said.
The BNPB has deployed dozens of aircraft to fight fires in affected areas. The aerial firefighters can carry up to 4,000 liters of water per sortie.
Sutopo called on the central government and authorities to play a bigger role in taking action against the perpetrators who intentionally ignite the blazes.
“The key is law enforcement. District officials and forestry agents need to conduct intensive patrols, and perpetrators need to be [legally] processed immediately,” he said.
National Police chief Gen. Sutarman said that the police will hunt down the arsonists responsible — both individuals and corporations on whose behalf they are acting.
“Although judges only give one-year sentences for corporations [in Riau], we will continue to work [on that angle]. We will also catch individuals,” Sutarman said.
The House of Representatives ratified the Asean Transboundary Haze Pollution Treaty on Tuesday, which establishes mechanisms for transnational cooperation in combating fires.
The ratification comes as the latest round of smoke haze from Indonesian fires enveloped its neighbors in Singapore and Malaysia.
It’s time for the Indonesian government to show regional leadership, Greenpeace Indonesia said on Wednesday.
“Indonesia must address the root causes of this environmental and health disaster that increasingly plagues Southeast Asia,” the Greenpeace statement said.
Indonesia’s peatlands have been turned into tinderboxes by drainage to establish plantations — and the peatlands will continue to burn and cause a choking haze across the region if nothing is done to adequately protect them, Greenpeace said.
“Unfortunately, President Yudhoyono’s environmental legacy risks being tarnished by a weak peat regulation that fails to approach peatlands at a landscape level and does nothing to resolve the problem of existing concessions on peat.
“This is especially regrettable in view of next week’s UN Climate Summit in New York, at which President Yudhoyono will be one of the world leaders expected to step forward with ambitious engagements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and peat degradation,” it added.
Greenpeace said ratification of the Asean treaty is an important indication that Indonesia is ready to accept responsibility and move forward with solutions.
