Antara 19 Oct 15;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government will share responsibility with local administration and companies to prevent forest fires and cope with any incidents of fire outbreaks.
"The central government cannot control the forest fires all alone. It will involve local administration and companies that own the right to manage forests to cope with such fires," President Joko Widodo said in a joint interview he gave to ANTARA, RRI and TVRI here on Monday.
The head of the state said the problem of forest fires and smoke has been going on for the last 18 years. It should be addressed and anticipated properly if such incidents are to be prevented in the future.
"Corporations should also be responsible and they must have their own infrastructure and facilities in place to overcome forest fires," the President said.
In order to handle smoke and forest fires, the President noted, Indonesia has deployed 19,000 military and police personnel as well as other components of the state.
In addition, the government also carried out the construction of the canals to control peatland fires.
"The solution is to build partitioned canals. The development of canals needs a lot of time because an area of 1.7 million hectares was involved. This is not an easy job. We have deployed 19,000 military and police personnel to build partitioned canals," the President said.
Nevertheless, the President underlined the role of local governments and communities in the vicinity of the burned area to take preventive measures in relation to land and forest fires.
"The local government and communities have a major role in anticipating forest fires. Right now, we need their cooperation to overcome the problems," the President said.
The governments efforts to extinguish forest fires can be successful, the President noted, if all the parties can work together.
Earlier, the number of hotspots in South Sumatra Province dropped drastically to 163 from 500 recorded a few days ago at a time when Indonesia is transitioning from dry to rainy season.
The hotspots were detected in nine of the provinces 17 districts, Indra Purnama of the South Sumatra meteorology office, reported here on Monday.
The largest number of hotspots was detected in Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) which had 100 hotspots, Musirawar had 26, Muaraenim 13, Musi Banyuasin 11, Ogan Komering Ulu eight, Lahat six, North Musirawas five, and East and South OKU had one hotspot, respectively.
A joint team comprising Indonesian personnel and fire fighters from Malaysia, Singapore and Australia have intensified their efforts to put out the fires, particularly in OKI, by dropping water bombs.
South Sumatra is also expected to receive rains in the near future as the El Nino natural phenomenon had triggered a prolonged drought in parts of Indonesia.
In the meantime, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Forestry Siti Nurbaya stated on Oct. 9 that 1.7 million hectares of forest and land areas had so far been burnt in the fires this year.
Moreover, millions of people, including those from Malaysia and Singapore, have become victims of the haze.
During the period between June 29 and October 5, 2015, at least 307,360 people in six Indonesian provinces had sought medical treatment for respiratory ailments and other conditions caused by smoke or haze from the forest fires.(*)
Most companies in Riau not ready to tackle forest fires
Antara 19 Oct 15;
Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - Riau Provinces Forestry Department Chief Fadrizal Labay here on Monday revealed that only 22 of the 61 forestry companies in the area were ready to overcome land and forest fires.
The statement was made during a coordination meeting with several officials and representatives of companies to overcome forest and land fires.
The 61 companies comprised three Forest Management Rights (HPH) license holders and the rest are Manager Plantation Forests (HTI) license holders.
The local government is now awaiting a regulation from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry on the minimum standards of human resources and infrastructure for firefighters that could serve as a standard reference for the operating companies.
"We would also evaluate and verify the preparedness of the companies," Fadrizal affirmed.
The evaluation is conducted to ensure that the action plan on the prevention of land and forest fires is actually carried out by the companies.
One of the points is to restore insulation canals, which were built during the companies operations in Riau.
Based on data from the Riau Forestry Service, a total of 3,887 canals were made when the companies commenced their operations, and the government had only built 80 canals.
Fadrizal emphasized that the companies efforts are deemed necessary to prevent fires as most of the peatland areas in Riau were prone to fires.
"During the year, 1.8 thousand hotspots were observed in Riau, with nearly 24 percent recorded in Pelalawan, followed by Indragiri Hulu and Bengkalis," Fadrizal said.
Meanwhile, Head of the Environment Agency of Riau Yulwiriawati Moesa stated that the hotspots were detected in 39 companies in Riau in 2015.
"We have written to the companies to conduct evaluation and prevention efforts," Yulwiriawati remarked.(*)
More hot spots found in Kalimantan: BNPB
The Jakarta Post 19 Oct 15;
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said on Sunday that hot spots continued to be detected in forested areas of Kalimantan and Sumatra in spite of the government’s coordinated efforts to put them out.
“We still can’t put out the fires,” BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said as quoted by Antara news agency.
Sutopo said that fires had spread to forests in East Kalimantan.
Data from the BNBP said that Jambi had 108 hot spots, Riau Island 10 hot spots, Riau 57 hot spots, while South Sumatra and Lampung had 871 hot spots and 39 hot spots, respectively.
In Kalimantan, the BNPB said it found 212 hot spots, with at least 156 hot spots in Central Kalimantan.
“If we look through a satellite, we can find more hot spots,” he said.
Sutopo said that efforts to put out the fires were continuing with the help of neighboring countries, including Malaysia and Singapore.
Indonesia Has Deposited Ratification Documents In January
Bernama 19 Oct 15;
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 (Bernama) -- The Indonesian government has ratified the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) by depositing the ratification of the document to the ASEAN Secretary-General on Jan 20, 2015, the Dewan Rakyat sitting was told Monday.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the agreement was reached through the 'Conference of the Parties to the AATHP' and 'Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution' meetings which were held periodically.
"Through the two forums, Malaysia and the other ASEAN member nations had urged the Indonesian government to speed up the AATHP ratification process," he said.
He was replying to a question from Datuk Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad (BN-Kuala Kangsar) who wanted to know Malaysia's role as the ASEAN chairman in persuading the Indonesian government to speed up the agreement.
Wan Junaidi said the AATHP was the first regional agreement in the world that bound the neighbouring countries in terms of the law in tackling the haze problems due to the forest and peat soil fires.
It encompasses five thrusts namely cooperation in developing preliminary measures in monitoring the haze, preventing land and forest fires, implementing joint reciprocal procedures on pollution, setting up an ASEAN haze fund and implementing scientific research cooperation on the problems of transborder haze.
He said Malaysia was the first among the ASEAN member countries to ratify the AATHP agreement on Dec 3, 2002.
Replying to a supplementary question from Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) whether the government could take action against the companies causing the fires, Wan Junaidi said Malaysia did not have the legislation as practised by Singapore.
Singapore had earlier gazetted the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014 and had adopted it this year, which enabled the republic to act against Singapore companies involved in the fires in Indonesia.
-- BERNAMA
Haze may last to 2016 as Indonesia fires rage on
New Paper AsiaOne 20 Oct 15;
JAKARTA - FOREST fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, which are shrouding parts of South-east Asia in haze, are unlikely to disappear until next year despite international effort to put them out, experts said yesterday.
Meanwhile, hot spots had popped up in Indonesia's eastern Papua province, where widespread fires have been rare, Reuters reported.
Last week Indonesia received help from Singapore, Malaysia and Australia in containing the annual "haze" crisis, which is caused by illegal slash-and-burn practices involving plantation companies.
But the effort has failed to put out the fires and industry officials and analysts estimate the smoke will last until early next year.
"Maybe it will last until December and January," said Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Bogor-based Centre for International Forestry Research.
On the Papua hot spots, he said: "It is because people are opening new agriculture areas, like palm oil."
A senior official at a company active in Indonesia's forested areas said the haze could continue until March.
Malaysia's environment minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar warned yesterday that the region could face several more weeks of choking haze until the rainy season starts.
Malaysia was forced once again to close schools in several states and Kuala Lumpur yesterday due to unhealthy air, said the minister.
"Unless there is rain, there is no way human intervention can put out the fires," he told Agence France-Presse.
Indonesia usually enters its wet season this month and November, but the country is expected to face moderate El Nino dry conditions this year, which could strengthen until December and may hinder efforts to control the fires.
Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said yesterday that satellite data indicated Indonesia now had more than 1,500 hot spots.
"The actual number is higher as the satellite is not able to penetrate the thickness of the haze in Sumatra and Borneo," Mr Sutopo added.
On Friday, Indonesia launched its biggest fire-fighting assault yet, with dozens of planes and thousands of troops battling the blazes in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Thirty-two planes and helicopters - including six aircraft from Singapore, Malaysia and Australia - were deployed to back up more than 22,000 personnel on the ground.
Yesterday, Jakarta warned another four plantation companies from taking part in the burning, suspended the operating licences of another four, and revoked those of two, news portal Detik reported.
That brings the total of firms sanctioned by the government to 14, said Detik.
Meanwhile, local petitions urging the government to put out the fires quickly has exceeded 1,000 at a website, with some lamenting that hot spots have appeared in Papua and the Moluccas.
In Singapore, the National Environment Agency said in a 6.30pm update yesterday that the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index for the next 24 hours is expected to be in the low to mid sections of the unhealthy range.
Aussie firies wrap up Sumatra mission
GABRIELLE DUNLEVY, AAP The Australian 19 Oct 15;
INDONESIA will hire commercial planes to fight its enormous forest fires as foreign crews, including one from Australia, return home.
AN Australian water bombing plane spent five days in South Sumatra, dousing fires from land clearing that have spread air pollution throughout Southeast Asia for weeks.
Schools in Kuala Lumpur and other Malaysian states were closed on Monday due to the haze.
After pressure from its neighbours, Indonesia eventually accepted foreign assistance.
Aerial crews on loan from Australia and Malaysia return home on Tuesday.
The NSW Rural Fire Service's Ben Millington, team leader for the deployment, says the hazy conditions and the scale of the task were particularly challenging.
"The size of the area and the magnitude of the fires, it wasn't comparable to anything we've seen in Australia," he told AAP.
"We managed to protect a number of homes and crops from fire ... The task of the Indonesian authorities is huge."
Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho says they will now seek any available commercial planes and helicopters to aid the effort.
"The help from Australia was significant in the areas where they were extinguishing fires," he told AAP.
"But remember the area on fire is hugely vast, it could not extinguish it all."
Some fires are in peatland that can smoulder for weeks, meaning the number of "hotspots" firefighters must tackle keeps fluctuating.
