Indonesia: 156 hot spots in Sumatra still

thejakartapost.com 13 Oct 15;

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Pekanbaru, Riau, have reported that NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites still detect 156 hot spots in Sumatra, 126 of which are in South Sumatra.

"These hot spots were detected at 7 a.m.," said BMKG Pekanbaru head Sugarin Widayat on Tuesday as quoted by tempo.co. He added that the hot spots had also spread to other regions, such as Jambi, which had 19, Lampung, with 8, and Riau, with 1.

But, compared to several days ago, the number of hot spots in Sumatra has decreased significantly. There was recently up to 725 hot spots on the island.

According to Sugarin, the weather in Riau in general was slightly cloudy in addition to the haze, with a chance of light rain in the northern, western and central parts of the region.

"The maximum forecast temperature is around 33 degrees Celsius," said Sugarin.

Leftover ashes from burned land and forest in Sumatra are still interfering with Riau's air quality, with the Air Pollution Standard Index (ISPU) there still an unhealthy 173. The haze is also still affecting visibility in several regions, limiting it to 1,000 meters in Pekanbaru, 800 m in Rengat, 700 m in Pelalawan and 500 m in Dumai. (kes)(++++)

Coordinating ministry, BNPB to coordinate properly to extinguish fires: President
Antara 13 oct 15;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo has urged the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs to coordinate with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) to tackle the fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

"Besides the BNPB, I emphasize that all parties should cooperate to extinguish forest and land fires," Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan said here on Tuesday.

According to Luhut, the Indonesian authorities have spent Rp385 billion to fight forest fires and the consequential haze blanketing most of the region, including Sumatra and Kalimantan.

"There will be an additional budget amounting to Rp700 billion," he said.

The budget has been approved by the House of Representatives and the Minister of Finance.

"The operation is expected to reduce the extent of forest and land fires in the next two weeks," he said.

Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) district in South Sumatra Province has been accorded priority in efforts to put out land and forest fires as it had become the biggest source of haze, compared to other districts in Indonesia, Luhut Pandjaitan had said earlier.

"Visibility in OKI is only about 100 meters. It still remains the worst hit by haze, based on data we have received," he told the press here on Monday.

Luhut said after observing the burnt areas in OKI, he found that the district was the worst region to have been hit by forest and land fires.

"Once these fires were extinguished, they came back due to the winds blowing since the land there is covered by peat, which is very inflammable," the Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister said.

He said efforts to put out the fires through water bombing were also postponed due to low visibility.

"It was also very difficult to induce artificial rain there because the air was foggy and the clouds were still inadequate. We are still waiting for the arrival of a Hercules aircraft which would help support the efforts to produce man-made rain," he said.

The chief security minister also underscored that all related parties have been coordinating well.(*)


Lawmaker proposes special committee on haze issue
Antara 13 Oct 15;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The House of Representatives should set up a special committee on the issue of haze that has been impacting several provinces across Kalimantan and Sumatra.

"A blanket of thick smoke now covers the constituency of Jambi. The haze has disrupted flights and schools in the region," Sutan Adil Hendra, a member of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party faction, said here on Tuesday.

According to him, the haze problem has not been addressed comprehensively by the government.

The Vice Chairman of Gerindras Board of Trustees said firm legal action should be taken against parties found responsible for these fires.

He also said that the personnel deployed to extinguish forest and land fires were not equipped with sufficient equipment.

"The government must declare forest fires as a national disaster and the House of Representatives should establish a special committee on the problem of haze," he said.

By declaring haze as a national disaster, all stakeholders and community would be able to work jointly to tackle forest and land fires in Indonesia.

"In addition, the budget can be disbursed easily," he said.

He proposed that such a special committee can comprise members from Commission IV, Commission II, Commission I and Commission X.

Earlier, House Speaker Setya Novanto had proposed that Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan be assigned the role of a coordinator in the efforts to fight forest and plantation fires.

"I have conveyed this proposal to the president, urging him to name a coordinator to tackle the haze problem. The right person (for the purpose) is, indeed, Mr Luhut. But we leave the decision to the president," Novanto noted here Tuesday.

He said the government should be serious in dealing with forest fires that have claimed lives, affected a large number of people and inflicted material losses.

Just spraying water would not solve the problem, he emphasized, adding that heavy rains would be immensely beneficial.

"Indeed, there have been some ideas, including, for instance, the one from Mr Prabowo (chairman of Gerindra Party) who suggested that the haze problem should be declared a national disaster," he said.

In the meantime, the problems posed by land fires in Indonesia and the resultant haze, that has also affected neighboring countries, are expected to end soon as teams from foreign countries commenced fire extinguishing operations on Monday.

The fires and haze have affected public health and disturbed daily activities in Indonesia and the neighboring countries.

Teams from Singapore and Malaysia joined the local forest and land fire prevention task force to commence fire extinguishing operations on Monday, focusing on the hotspots in Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) district in South Sumatra.

"Teams from Singapore and Malaysia along with South Sumatras Forest and Land Fires Prevention Task Force have begun aerial and land operations to extinguish the fires in OKI and Musi Banyuasin District," South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin stated on Monday (Oct. 12).(*)


Govt sanctions 4 companies for involvement in lighting fires
thejakartapost.com 13 Oct 15;

The government has revoked the forest concession license of one company and suspended the licenses of three others for their alleged involvement in starting the land and forest fires currently affecting several provinces across Kalimantan and Sumatra.

“The companies cannot operate anymore,” the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s director general of environment and forestry law enforcement Rasio Ridho Sani said as quoted by tempo.co in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The company sanctioned with a license revocation is plantation company PT Hutani Sola Lestari while the three companies hit with license suspensions are PT Langgam Hibrindo Inti, PT Tempiray Palm Rosources and PT K. Agro Jaya.

Rasio further explained the ministry was still investigating 18 other companies. “We cannot yet publish [their names] as we are still in the process of collecting data,” he said.

Rasio said license suspensions and permit revocations were among the forceful measures the government had planned to take against companies allegedly involved in lighting land and forest fires. It was hoped that the sanctions would serve as a deterrent for the perpetrators, he added.

Rasio further asserted that the ministry would take tough measures against any company, either from Indonesia or abroad, involved in lighting forest fires. “Every fire starter has an equal position before the law,” he said.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry says it has also targeted individual perpetrators of the forest fires. Rasio said the ministry’s investigators were looking into 21 people allegedly involved in the fires. He refused to give details on their identities.

"It's still in the hands of the investigators. Criminal law enforcement is a long process, from the investigation to the prosecution and trial," Rasio said.

Meanwhile, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief Willem Rampangilei stated that the government had disbursed Rp 500 billion (US$37.3 million) to solve haze problems in South Sumatra and several other provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan over the past two months.

"Of the six provinces affected by haze during this year’s dry season, South Sumatra is the province absorbing most of the funds," he said. (ami/ebf)(++++)


Two foreign firms blamed for fires, haze
Nani Afrida and Haeril Halim, The Jakarta Post 13 Oct 15;

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti announced on Monday that the police had named two foreign companies suspects in clearing land by burning in Sumatra and Kalimantan, a practice that has led to thick haze covering the two islands, as well as parts of neighboring countries.

“The two companies are from Malaysia and China,” Badrodin told reporters during a press conference at the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Ministry in Jakarta.

The police, he said, would investigate the two foreign companies’ possible motives for burning land in Indonesia.

“One company from Singapore is still under our investigation for its involvement, too. However, I cannot give anymore information now,” Badrodin said, adding that the companies were all involved in the plantation business.

He refused to give the names or initials of the companies.

“We do not intend to involve foreign police forces in our investigations yet,” Badrodin said.

He added that the investigations would continue and that more suspects might be named in coming days.

Separately, National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Suharsono said that the police had named 16 domestic and multinational companies suspects for their roles in burning land in Sumatra and Kalimantan. The spokesman refused to reveal the names of the suspects.

Suharsono further said that the National Police were currently investigating a total 244 cases with regard to peatland and forest fires in the two islands.

“Some 122 cases are already in the primary investigation phase and another 24 cases are still in the preliminary investigation. Of the 122 cases, 78 involve individuals and 44 involve corporations,” Suharsono told The Jakarta Post on Monday night.

Most of the cases relate to alleged crimes in South Sumatra and West Kalimantan provinces.

The National Police said they had named 16 corporations suspects, while police investigators were still working to collect evidence on another 28 companies, both domestic and foreign-owned, before naming them suspects.

The police will charge the suspects under Law No. 32/2009 Article 108, with any parties found guilty liable to face a 10-year prison sentence and Rp 10 billion in fines.

Badrodin said, however, that the police could not directly blame the landowners.

“It is possible that it was not the landowners themselves who burned the land,” he said.

Previously, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has called for heavy punishment for companies responsible for starting forest fires, including prosecutions and revoking their licenses.

Jokowi stressed that the police would not be severe only with low-profile individuals.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has reportedly spent Rp 500 billion to extinguish hot spots. The agency has asked for an additional Rp 750 billion, a request approved by the Finance Ministry.

The hazardous haze has forced the closure of thousands of schools, grounded hundreds of flights and caused transboundary air pollution affecting Indonesia’s neighbors, Malaysia and Singapore.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan acknowledged that it would take some time to extinguish all hot spots in the country.

“I don’t think we will manage [to extinguish] the fires within two weeks. But [the hot spots] will be reduced significantly. I’m holding out hope that heavy rains will come,” Luhut said.

He added that the government would focus on the Ogan Komering Ilir Area of South Sumatra, where much of the haze was coming from.

Luhut insisted that the government was pulling out all the stops to deal with land and forest fires, and that efforts were on the right track.

Meanwhile Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said that more foreign countries were planning to aid efforts to deal with the haze. Japan for instance, is expected to help by providing a chemical substance to extinguish the fires.

Russia, meanwhile, is preparing to send two BE-200 amphibious aircraft, which can carry 12,000 liters of water.

Malaysia, Singapore and Australia have already stepped in with support to help Indonesia to put out the fires and end the haze.

Thailand and China have also expressed their intention to help.

Foreign efforts have, as of Monday, been concentrated in South Sumatra.


Indonesia to Spend Rp 700b to Quell Forest Fires in Fortnight
Basten Gokkon Jakarta Globe 12 Oct 15;

Jakarta. The ongoing Sumatra and Kalimantan haze crisis will be over in a fortnight, President Joko Widodo has promised, but extinguishing all the fires will cost Indonesia at least a total of Rp 1.3 trillion ($97 million).

Joko set a bold target on Saturday to have all fires — often started by people burning land and forest to clear the way for agriculture — under control within two weeks.

Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told reporters in Jakarta on Monday that the government is set to spend Rp 700 billion to achieve this, which would bring the total amount spent on quelling forest fires to more than Rp 1.3 trillion.

"The House of Representatives and the Finance Ministry have approved the budget," Luhut told a press conference at his office with the environment and forestry minister, the foreign affairs minister, the health minister and the chief of National Police.

According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), haze mitigation efforts have already cost the state Rp 500 billion, as more than 20,000 police and military personnel and volunteers have been deployed to fight the fires since last month.

An additional 6,000 personnel are expected to be deployed in the coming days, while last Friday Indonesia finally accepted aid from six countries, including Japan, China and Russia.

Asean solidarity

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar — who previously declined Singapore's military assistance in putting out the wildfires — said the government wanted to do all it could before deciding to accept the aid from Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries as regulated under the region's Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

"This is solidarity from the Asean countries,," Siti said. "The amount of burned peatland has reached 580,000 hectares."

The agreement, established in 2002 but only ratified by Indonesia in September 2014, requires all parties to cooperate to mitigate transboundary haze pollution, as well as to respond promptly to "a request for relevant information sought by a state or states that are or may be affected" by such pollution in order to minimize the impacts.

Malaysia and Singapore, who were both forced to close schools, pressured Indonesia to contain the haze crisis which also ended up blanketing the sky over southern Thailand earlier this month.

Previously, the Indonesian government would brush off cries from the neighboring countries while vowing to end slash-and-burn practices, a technique that has been used for decades and is estimated to be five times less costly than the safer method of using heavy machinery.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has made snide comments, asking the neighbors to be grateful for the 11 months of clean air that Indonesia's forests provide.

Humanitarian aid

On Sunday, the country already employed help from Singapore and Malaysia to extinguish land and forest fires in South Sumatra.

Seven helicopters and three fixed-wing aircraft were tasked with a water bombing missions and a Cessna plane assigned to perform cloud seeding operations was deployed by the joint task force to the province, where 65 of 90 hotspots detected across Sumatra can be found, the BNPB said on Monday.

Among the planes is a Malaysia-owned Bombardier 415 MP plane with a six-ton water capacity, which will be on loan to Indonesia until Friday, while Singapore's contribution comes in the form of a Chinook helicopter with a five-ton water capacity that will remain available through Oct. 23.

Meanwhile, Australia is scheduled to send a Hercules L 100 aircraft, capable of carrying 15 tons of water, on Tuesday or Wednesday, which will remain on hand for five days.

Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said on Monday that all foreign aid would come purely in the form of humanitarian efforts.

"None of the foreign aid is commercialized," she said.

Facing trial

On Monday, the chief of National Police, Gen. Badrodin Haiti, said that 12 plantation companies — including firms from Malaysia and China — have been named as suspects for setting fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan and will face prosecution.

Meanwhile, more than 200 companies, mostly from countries in Southeast Asia, are under still under police investigation.

If found guilty of violating Indonesia's 2009 Law on Forest Conservation and Monitoring, companies will be placed on Indonesia's blacklist, expected to be completed in December, and may have operational permits revoked.

One million face masks

Six provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan — Riau, Jambi, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan — have declared a state of emergency because of the fires and haze.

But the situation escalated as reports of deaths believed to have been caused by the choking smog surfaced, including a 28-day-old baby named Huseun Saputra who died last Wednesday from an acute respiratory ailment.

The Health Ministry has shipped more than one million face masks and 5,200 N95 respirators to all areas hit by haze in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Carbon emissions

Environmental group Greenpeace estimated that the amount of carbon emitted in this year's fires might exceed that of 1997, when Indonesia produced between 0.81 and 2.57 gigatons of the pollutant, equivalent to 13 to 40 percent of the entire world's annual fossil fuel emissions.

Indonesia has vowed a 29 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 — a 3 percent hike from its previous pledge of 26 percent by 2015 — and will likely be in the spotlight at the UN's climate change conference in Paris in December.

This year's haze crisis will likely to cause the country to break its 1997 carbon emissions record, Greenpeace says.


Minister blasts execs of firm that denied burning forest
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, The Straits Times AsiaOne 14 Oct 15;

Retired general Luhut Pandjaitan, the most senior Indonesian official in charge of tackling the haze crisis, recalls how he once stuck his head out of a helicopter in midair to survey the damage done by forest fires.

That was decades ago when he was a young army major.

Last Friday, the former Special Forces soldier, now 68, did just that again. This time, over concession land under Bumi Andalas Permai, a supplier to Singapore-based Asia Pulp and Paper. The two companies share the same parent, Indonesia's Sinar Mas.

Mr Luhut, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, saw fires raging over thousands of hectares in the Ogan Komering Ilir regency. This, even though the firm had denied burning the forest to clear land.

The retired general landed at the office of Bumi Andalas Permai and vented his frustration.

"We flew low and I opened the helicopter door. All the fires I saw were on your concession," he said in a meeting attended by the company executives and military officers who coordinated soldiers deployed to South Sumatra to help douse fires.

"For almost 15 minutes, we hovered above your concession, practically all below was on fire. You are blaming the local farmers. I know it was you who burned the forest," Mr Luhut added.

Mr Sapto Nurlistyo, forestry operations director of Bumi Andalas Permai, said in the meeting - also attended by national police chief Badrodin Haiti and army chief Mulyono - that the company has a fire prevention system in place, with 160 water pumps and one helicopter ready for water-bombing.

The firm has a total of 192,000ha of pulpwood concessions, of which 108,000ha have been planted.

In addition to that, 8m-wide blocked canals line its plantations to help retain moisture.

"We did not expect it would turn out this bad," Mr Sapto responded to Mr Luhut.

"You have only one helicopter and your concession is more than 100,000ha. That is clearly insufficient," said Mr Luhut, again in a raised voice.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar disclosed a range of breaches by companies in terms of fire prevention that the ministry will follow up on, according to the minister's presentation booklet distributed during the Sept 30 ministerial coordination meeting on haze. No company names, however, were mentioned.

A number of firms did not have enough in-house fire control teams and staff had never been trained.

Companies had also failed to prevent fires with ground patrols and should have mapped fire-prone areas within their concessions, according to the minister. Other breaches were with fire control equipment and water storage.

"In January, February, March, you have to report what you have and what you plan to do. I will come back here in February to check," Mr Luhut told the company officials.

Some 1.7 million ha of forest and plantation land have been razed by fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan this year, mostly as a result of firms opting for the cheap slash-and- burn alternative to hiring bulldozers and other machines to clear land. "These soldiers and officers left their families at home to fight fires here because of your greed. If you want to cut costs, do not do it this way (burn to clear land). Find other ways," said Mr Luhut.

Local chiefs urged to revoke burning law
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Straits Times AsiaOne 14 Oct 15;

Indonesia wants its local chiefs to revoke a law that allows small-time farmers to clear up to 2ha of forested land using fire - this as a multilateral effort to put out hot spots in South Sumatra entered its third day yesterday.

Indonesian Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo called on regency officials to repeal Article 69, which under a 2009 environmental law bans the use of the slash-and-burn method to clear land for cultivation.

The law, however, exempts farmers who may still use the method, provided the land they burn does not exceed 2ha, or the size of four football fields. But these farmers will need to build blocking canals around the area to prevent the fire from spreading.

Slash-and-burn practices have been carried out for decades across Indonesia, which has 35 provinces made up of more than 500 regencies and cities.

Each regency has its own bylaw detailing how the regulation can be implemented, such as when farmers burn the land and what crops they are allowed to cultivate.

Local farmers as well as plantation companies and their suppliers tend to use the slash-and-burn method because it is cheaper than hiring excavators to clear the land, but also because the ashes from the burnt vegetation provide calcium, which neutralises acidic peatland, making it more fertile.

Burning the land also greatly reduces the risk of the crops being infested by pests.

Fires from peatland, however, have produced a thick haze that has blanketed many parts of the region from Indonesia to Thailand.

That is why Mr Tjahjo wants to put a stop to it.

"Local leaders who have issued bylaws allowing farmers to burn to clear land must review the bylaws," he said yesterday.

Environmental groups, including Greenpeace Indonesia's forest campaigner Teguh Surya, yesterday hailed Mr Tjahjo's call, but warned that a major challenge is patrolling the huge concessions over peatland that the government has already issued.

Mr Tjahjo has also appealed to the regents to review the issued plantation concessions that are located on deep peatland, which catches fire easily during the dry season.

Reviewing and revoking concessions on peatland would promise a better solution to help end the annual haze problem in Indonesia, Mr Teguh said.

However, the focus of the government for now should be to deal with the raging forest fires causing the haze.

Indonesia has been grappling with the transboundary haze crisis for weeks now.

The smoke from the fires, often burning over dry peatland in Kalimantan and Sumatra, has affected millions across Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as people in parts of the Philippines and Thailand in recent weeks.

The Indonesian government has started multilateral firefighting operations involving aircraft from Singapore and Malaysia.

The Indonesian authorities decided last week to deploy the majority of the multilateral resources to South Sumatra province, where conditions were the worst last week.

Water-bombing aircraft from Singapore and Malaysia have been deployed since Sunday.

But firefighting should cover all regions in Indonesia, Mr Teguh told The Straits Times yesterday, adding that the water-bombing drive in South Sumatra has led Kalimantan to be overlooked.

He said: "I'm now in central Kalimantan and the fires are raging wild here and no one is around to deal with them."