Indonesia's President: Law enforcement imposed on individuals, companies causing forest fires

Antara 23 Sep 15;

Banjarbaru, S Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo affirmed that the law will be imposed equally on individuals and companies found guilty of causing or being involved in forest and land fires.

"Everybody is equal before the law," the head of state remarked during a visit to an area affected by a hotspot in Guntung Damar Village in the South Kalimantan city of Banjanbaru on Wednesday.

He noted that forest and land fires in certain parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan Island have caused losses worth trillions of rupiah.

Therefore, the president revealed that he had ordered Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar to revoke the principle business licenses of all companies found guilty of causing forest and land fires.

The haze from forest and land fires over the past weeks has triggered health problems among the people living in disaster zones and has also disrupted commercial flight operations in several main cities, including at the Kuala Namu International Airport in North Sumatra.

President Widodo said he will continue to monitor forest and land fires affecting the two main islands and has urged the military, police, and local governments to work together to extinguish them.

They also need to conduct a sustainable public awareness campaign program to educate the locals to stop using the slash and burn method to clear land, he remarked.

"Solid collaboration is needed as extinguishing forest and land fires, which have ravaged tens of thousands of hectares of land, is not easy. Therefore, all-out efforts are needed," he noted.

Meanwhile, Chief of the Antasari district military command Colonel Muhammad Abduh Ras stated that stringent law enforcement measures have been imposed on those allegedly involved in forest and land fires.

A total of 142 people have been questioned, and six have been declared as suspects, he said, adding that seven companies in South Kalimantan were also allegedly responsible for the forest and land fires.

In South Kalimantan, 1,538 hotspots have been detected, of which 1,460 have been put out. Thus, there are still 70 hotspots on the ground, he noted.

A CN295 aircraft, three Casa 212 light aircraft, and 17 helicopters were deployed to extinguish the remaining hotspots that indicate the presence of wildfires.(*)

President lauds parties involved in fire fighting efforts
Antara 23 Sep 15;

Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) praised all parties involved in the efforts to fight forest and land fires in several provinces in the country.

"We highly laud all parties that have taken part in the efforts to fight land fires," he stated here on Wednesday.

President Jokowi visited Banjarbaru and personally inspected the fire situation in Guntung Damar in the village of Guntung Payung, Landasan Ulin.

The hard work put in by the provincial and district governments as well as personnel from the military (TNI)/police was a concrete action taken to overcome the fires, the president remarked.

In view of this, their hard work must be lauded, and it is hoped that the fires could be overcome and would not occur in future, he emphasized.

"Every day, I monitor the firefighting efforts and see that all have worked hard, and the results are visible by a decline in the number of fires," he pointed out.

"Not only hundreds but tens of thousands of hectares of land across Indonesia has been burnt down, and so, all parties must work together to help overcome them," Jokowi remarked

Fires in the past month in the country have led to haze, which has disrupted activities of the people and also flights and flight schedules.

President Jokowi was accompanied by First Lady Iriana, Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Education Minister Baswedan, TNI Commander General Gatot Nurmantyo, and Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency Willem Rampangilei.

Widodo Heads to Borneo to Check Fire Fighting as Haze Hazardous
Fitri Wulandari Herdaru Purnomo Bloomberg 23 Sep 15;

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo is heading to Borneo and Sumatra islands to check on efforts to stop forest blazes that are causing pollution across the region.

Widodo, who has set a deadline of two weeks to a month to stop the burning, will speak to fire fighters in southern Kalimantan on Borneo on Wednesday and then head to Sumatra for two days, his office said in a statement. A pollution gauge in Pontianak in Kalimantan worsened to 779.4 on Wednesday, double the level considered hazardous, while in Singapore a three-hour index was up to an unhealthy level of 116 as of 11 a.m.

Widodo, known as Jokowi, is facing regional pressure to step up efforts to combat perennial forest burning by cracking down on companies with fires on their concessions. The government on Tuesday said it suspended the permits for three Indonesian palm oil planters and revoked the permit for a forestry company.

“There are 14 companies that are being investigated by police,” said Fadrizal Labay, the head of forestry and plantations for Sumatra’s Riau islands, near Singapore. “There will be a possibility of criminal and administrative action.”

PT Langgam Inti Hibrindo, one of the palm companies named by the government and majority-owned by PT Provident Agro, said on Tuesday it was not responsible for causing any fires and will cooperate with the authorities.

Indonesia’s enforcement of its laws against plantation owners is key to resolving the haze, Singapore’s Environment Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said on Friday. The smog has led the city-state to cancel outdoor events and flights have been stopped across the region.

Responsibility for the blazes, which also emit greenhouse gases from burning peatlands, is complicated by uncertainty over land rights and overlapping permits in a country with widespread official corruption.

Widodo checks up on efforts to tackle forest blazes in Borneo
Today Online 23 Sep 15;

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo is heading to Borneo and Sumatra islands to check on efforts to stop forest blazes that are causing pollution across the region.

Mr Widodo’s visit comes as his administration faces regional pressure to step up efforts to combat perennial forest burning by cracking down on companies with fires on their concessions. The government yesterday (Sept 22) said it had suspended the permits of three Indonesian palm oil planters, and revoked the permit of a forestry company.

“There are 14 companies that are being investigated by police,” said Mr Fadrizal Labay, the head of forestry and plantations for Sumatra’s Riau islands. “There will be a possibility of criminal and administrative action.”

Mr Widodo, who has set a deadline of two weeks to a month to stop the burning, was slated to speak to fire fighters in southern Kalimantan on Borneo today before heading to Sumatra for two days, his office said in a statement. A pollution gauge in Pontianak in Kalimantan worsened to 779.4 today, double the level considered hazardous.

PT Langgam Inti Hibrindo, one of the palm companies named by the government and majority-owned by PT Provident Agro, said on Tuesday it was not responsible for causing any fires and will cooperate with the authorities.

The head of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki) backed the country’s palm oil producers, saying producers stand to lose from deliberately lighting forest fires and abide by a “zero burning” policy.

“(Members of Gapki) have implemented sustainability principles,” Mr Joko Supriyono, head of Gapki, told Antara news agency yesterday.

Producers face heavy sanctions and risk having their permits revoked if found to be clearing land through fire, Mr Joko said. Buyers of palm oil products also demand eco-friendly practices.

“It is impossible for companies that have invested trillions of rupiahs to take the risk of having their permits revoked just because they want to save the cost of land clearing,” he said.

Indonesia’s enforcement of its laws against plantation owners is key to resolving the haze issue, Singapore’s Environment Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said on Friday.

The smog has led the city-state to cancel outdoor events, and flights have been affected across the region.

Responsibility for the blazes, which also emit greenhouse gases from burning peatland, is complicated by uncertainty over land rights and overlapping permits in a country with widespread official corruption. AGENCIES


Haze set to last till November as El Nino stretches dry spell
Indonesia's disaster management agency says it will need more soldiers and more funds to battle the forest fires
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Indonesia Correspondent In Jakarta Straits Times 24 Sep 15; and AsiaOne

The haze, a result of forest fires in parts of Indonesia, is set to remain until November, due in part to the dry spell caused by the El Nino effect said to be among the strongest since records were kept in 1950.

Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said that it will need not only more boots on the ground to fight the fires, but also more money to deal with the crisis.

"The number of forest and land fires still has the potential to rise until end-November," said BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho during a press briefing yesterday.

"As a result, BNPB may use up all 385 billion rupiah (S$38.5 million) in government funding earmarked to deal with the fires by end-September and it will have to turn to a 2.5 trillion rupiah 'on-call fund' set aside for other types of disasters."

The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) in the Central Kalimantan capital of Palangkaraya fluctuated from as high as 1,992 at 6am yesterday, to 1,096 later in the afternoon.

Other places fared better, but only slightly. Palembang in South Sumatra went from a high of 758 at 5am to 180 at 2pm yesterday.

Any PSI reading over 350 is rated as hazardous; while the range of 151 to 250 is considered unhealthy.

"Now, Central and West Kalimantan are seeing the worst (in air pollution)," said Mr Sutopo. "Merauke in Papua has also been burning."

Indonesia has struggled to control the spread of forest fires that caused the smouldering haze, which has affected the lives of millions of people across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in recent weeks.

There are now about 4,800 soldiers and policemen fighting fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, but the BNPB says it wants an additional 600 troops to help.

President Joko Widodo yesterday visited emergency workers deployed to help fight the fires in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, before heading to Sumatra, where he will be spending two days inspecting ground conditions and fire-fighting efforts in Jambi, as well as visiting evacuees from the Mount Sinabung volcano eruption. The volcano in North Sumatra last erupted earlier this month.

His men, however, face a tall order, with climate experts warning that the extreme dry weather from the El Nino phenomenon will continue to cause peatlands to burn more readily.

El Nino typically lasts nine months but weather experts say the forecast this year indicates that it is set to peak only in November and could possibly last well into the first half of next year.

According to data from 2006 to last year, hot spots typically appear between June and October, but the prevailing dry weather means they may continue to burn until November, said Mr Sutopo. "The number of hot spots rose again, including fires in South Sumatra... that were previously doused but have re-emerged," he said.

Border areas such as Jambi in South Sumatra - where fires occur in far-flung, hard-to-reach places - have also registered a spike in the number of hot spots, he added.

Indonesia's Environment and Forestry Ministry on Tuesday said it suspended the operations of three plantation companies and revoked the business licence of a fourth over illegal land-clearing practices, which have led to forest fires and the haze in recent weeks. All are Indonesian-owned entities.

The ministry, which is planning to launch civil action against the companies, also said more are expected to be dealt with in the days ahead for breaching Indonesia's environmental laws.

Fire in Unhas education forest escalates
Andi Hajramurni and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post 23 Sep 15;

While forest and land fires in other areas have finally decreased with rainfall in some regions, a fire that has ravaged the educational forest of Hasanuddin University (Unhas) in Makasssar, South Sulawesi, continues to grow.

As of Tuesday the fire was reported to have burned up to 40 hectares of forest in Bengo village, Kimapoccoe subdistrict, Maros regency, close to the protected forest in Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park.

The fire, which began in three spots in the pine forest, was first detected on Monday at 11:30 a.m. local time.

Maros Forestry Agency head Muhammad Nurdin said that fires in some areas on the eastern side of the range had been extinguished, but the ones on the western side had expanded and almost reached the protected forest.

“Due to strong winds the fire has expanded rapidly,” Nurdin said on Tuesday.

He said efforts to extinguish the fire were being conducted by personnel from the local military, police, forestry agency, Maros Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park and Unhas students.

Maros BPBD head Suyuti and dean of Unhas’ School of Forestry, Yusran both said that trees in the forest were dry due to the long dry season, making them burn easier.

Meanwhile in North Sumatra, the haze that has blanketed the province has reportedly begun to subside as the number of hot spots in neighboring Pekanbaru, Riau, also decreased due to rainfall.

Lestari Irene Purba of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) Medan office said that almost all regions in North Sumatra including Medan were now free of haze.

Lestari said the haze that blanketed North Sumatra had come from South Sumatra and Riau. As of Tuesday, only 37 hot spots were detected across Sumatra, of which 36 were in South Sumatra and the other in Pekanbaru, Riau.

Separately, in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, the city health agency reported over 3,500 cases of acute respiratory infection (ISPA) as of mid-September due to the haze.

“By the end of August we had 2,400 cases of ISPA and by mid September the figure increased drastically to 3,559 cases,” the agency head Balerina JPP said.

Balikpapan has been exposed to haze for the last four weeks, although it has not been as thick as in other cities in Kalimantan. Visibility in Sepinggan Airport, Balikpapan, was still over 10 kilometers.

N. Abdi contributed to this article from Balikpapan.