Indonesia: Smoke and haze worsen in Central Kalimantan

thejakartapost.com 10 Oct 15;

Haze caused by forest and peatland fires in North Barito regency, Central Kalimantan, was thicker on Saturday morning, bringing visibility down to 80 meters from 200 meters the day before, according to the local Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Muara Teweh.

Residents confirmed the worsening smoke. “The smoke and haze are thicker [on Saturday] morning, the visibility was very limited. It leaves us breathless,” said Hermanto, who lives in Muara Teweh.

Meanwhile, an officer at Muara Teweh’s conservation office, Aswaludin, said the satellites NOAA 18 (from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and Terra Aqua (from NASA) detected new hotspots on Friday night.

“The NOAA 18 satellite detected four hotspots, while Terra Aqua detected eight hotspots in different places of North Barito forests,” Aswaludin said.

Meanwhile, House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to appointed one of his aides as a coordinator to solve the haze disaster.

“I have proposed it to President Jokowi. The coordinator could be the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister or the coordinating human development and culture minister,” said Setya as quoted by tribbunnews.com on Friday.

Forest fires occur every year and cause a range of problems, affecting human health and disrupting flights. The government has yet to come up with a comprehensive solution to stop the forest fires from recurring annually. (bbn)(++++)

House Speaker: Disaster Mitigation Needs Better Coordination
Setya Novanto, center, is the speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives. (Antara Photo/Hafidz Mubarak)
Markus Junianto Sihaloho Jakarta Globe 10 Oct 15;

Jakarta. Indonesia's government should quickly appoint a special coordinator for disaster mitigation, to better tackle issues like the yearly forest fires, the speaker of the House of Representatives says.

Speaker Setya Novanto said late on Friday that one of President Joko Widodo's minister should take charge when the country faces a national disaster such as the current haze crisis.

"The president should appoint a minister he trusts," Setya said. "It can be the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs [Luhut Panjaitan] or the coordinating minister for welfare [Puan Maharani]," he added, giving some examples.

The House speaker also said many more ministers should follow the example the president set by visiting haze-hit areas himself.

"And we would like to thank the countries that are providing us with firefighting equipment," he added, in reference to the offers of help from several countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.


Police process 33 cases of land fires in W Kalimantan
Antara 11 Oct 15;

Pontianak, W Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - The West Kalimantan Provincial Police have processed 33 cases of land fires which have caused haze to spread across the province in recent months, a spokesman said.

Further, as many as 25 people have been named as suspects in the cases, spokesman for the West Kalimantan Provincial Police Adjunct Senior Commissioner Arianto said here on Saturday.

All the suspects are local people who set fire to land for agricultural and plantation purposes, he noted.

The provincial police are investigating three companies suspected of setting fire to land. The companies have been identified as PT KAL and PT SKM located in Ketapang district and PT RJP located in Kubu Raya district.

"We have investigated the management of the three companies, but we have not named any of them as suspects," he said.

Preliminary data from the provincial police show that some 525 hectares of land in the province caught fire during this drought.

He said 22 hectares of land are located in Kubu Raya district, 14.5 hectares in Sambas district, 2.7 hectares in Bengkayang district, 7 hectares in Landak district, 110 hectares in Sanggau district, 16 hectares in Sekadau district, 60 hectares in Melawi district, 111 hectares in Sintang district, 12 hectares in Kapuas Hulu district, and 33 hectares in Ketapang district.

Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya said, while accompanying President Joko Widodo during an inspection of firefighting efforts in the village of Rimbo Panjang in the district of Kampar in the Sumatra province of Riau on Friday, that 1.7 million hectares of forests and land in Sumatra and Kalimantan have so far been burnt in the fires.(*)

Forest arsonists to face multiple charges
thejakartapost.com 19 Oct 15;

Companies and individuals responsible for forest fires could face multiple charges under the environment, money-laundering and plantation laws, according to the Environment and Forestry Ministry.

“The charges will be multiple to give a deterrent effect,” the ministry’s directorate general secretary of law enforcement, Novrizal Bahar, was quoted as saying by tempo.co on Saturday.

In the past, said Novrizal, forest fire setters appeared to be undeterred by the law, especially after several were acquitted of all charges. Most of them were mere actors in the field, not the instigators.

However, Novrizal voiced optimism that starting this year, law enforcement would be tougher.

“Especially as there is strong momentum at the moment. In Aceh, we have filed a Rp 366 billion [US$27 million] lawsuit against PT Kalistam Alam,” said Novrizal.

He added that the company had previously been found guilty of setting land fires in Nagan Raya regency by the Meulaboh District Court.

Previously, the ministry punished four companies for their involvement in setting forest fires. Three of them, identified only as PT TPR, PT WAJ and PT LIH, had their permits suspended. The permit of the fourth company, PT HS, was revoked as the burned area reached more than 500 hectares. (kes)(++++)


On the spot visit reveals peatland forest fires
Imanuddin Razak, The Jakarta Post 10 Oct 15;

The puzzle over the dominant party responsible for the forest fires that have triggered severe haze problems in several parts of the country seemed to have been solved on Friday.

A central government delegation led by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut B. Pandjaitan discovered during an on-the-spot visit to the Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) regency that a large part of the blame ought to be borne by the owners of industrial forest concessions (HTI).

“I found out during our helicopter flight to get here that the hotspots were found on your HTI concession areas here,” Luhut told local South Sumatra administration officials alongside the management of PT Bumi Andalas Permai (BAP), a subsidiary of Sinar Mas Group, at the company’s plantation area in the Air Sugihan subdistrict, OKI regency.

“Local people are often blamed for the fires. In fact, HTI concession holders like you are the parties [who are mainly to blame],” he added.

PT BAP, which holds a HTI concession of 192,000 hectares in the regency, produces paper products.

During the visit, Luhut was accompanied by National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mulyono and South Sumatra Governor Alex Nurdin.

Luhut told the PT BAP management, represented by its Forestry Operation Manager Sapto Nuristio, that the government would demand that the company bear responsibility for the fires and their impact on the environment and the local people.

“For a company holding such a huge HTI concession, in the future you must have at least one water bombing aircraft, have your own fire department, and have your own early warning system,” Luhut said.

Sapto admitted that the company currently had only one helicopter with a small water tank to deal with forest fires.

Luhut warned the company to comply with the demand, otherwise the government would impose penalties.

“I’ll come back here next February to check whether you have complied with the government’s instructions,” he said.

“Pak Kapolri [National Police chief] should think of legal actions against such violations,” he told Badrodin.

Speaking about foreign countries that have expressed interest in helping Indonesia put out the fires, Luhut listed Singapore, Malaysia, China and Russia as the ones who had offered to help.

“For immediate and effective measures to put out the fires, the first is through water bombing. In this case, we are expecting the arrival of two Russian Berriev Be-200 airplanes next Tuesday,” he said, referring to the water-bombing aircraft with a water tank capacity of 12.5 tons.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said that the foreign countries were expected to focus on helping extinguish fires in South Sumatra, particularly in Ogan Komering Ilir and Musi Banyuasin regencies.


Humans, animals biggest losers in haze crisis
Jon Afrizal and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post 10 Oct 15;

Fires that razed extensive forest areas and peat lands in Sumatra and Kalimantan over the past few weeks have caused local residents to struggle with deteriorating air quality and have instigated cases of conflict with animals displaced from their natural habitat.

In West Tanjung Jabung regency, Jambi, forest fires in the Betara district forced a wild sun bear to escape from its habitat and roam a neighborhood in Serdang Jaya subdistrict, damaging residents’ houses.

“Some 20 houses have been damaged because of the bear’s attack,” subdistrict head Darmayulis said on Friday, adding that the bear usually entered the neighborhood at night.

Swiss-based environmental organization the International Union for Conservation Nature (IUCN) has listed the sun bear as a vulnerable species since 2008.

According to the IUCN, tropical evergreen rainforests are the sun bear’s main habitat on the islands of Borneo, Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia. The bears are unlikely to survive in deforested areas or in agricultural areas with no nearby forest.

Darmayulis said the bear had also attacked houses in the neighboring Pematang Buluh and Muntialo subdistricts. He said that he had reported the case to the Jambi Provincial Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA), which later provided local residents with wild animal traps to catch the bear.

BKSDA head Abdul Haris Sudjoko confirmed that the ongoing peat land and forest fires in the province had led to potential conflicts between displaced animals and local residents.

“Recently, we have received a number of reports regarding encounters between local residents and wild animals, including elephants, crocodiles and bears,” Haris said.

Over the past few months, many regions in Indonesia, including Riau, Jambi, North Sumatra, South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan, have been struggling to cope with the impact of smoke produced by both man-made and natural land and forest fires.

The ongoing disaster has been exacerbated by this year’s long dry season, triggered by the El Niño weather phenomenon.

In South Sumatra, haze caused 3,074 people in the Ogan Ilir regency to suffer from acute respiratory infections (ISPA) in September alone.

Ogan Ilir Health Agency’s disease mitigation section head Mulyadi said community health centers (Puskesmas) across the region were prepared to work a round the clock to help local residents who needed emergency medical assistance due to haze-related diseases.

In West Sumatra, thick haze had decreased visibility in the Padang, Bukittingi and Padang Panjang municipalities below 900 meters, according to Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Padang station spokesperson Budi Iman Samiaji.

The BMKG also reported that Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, had become the city with the worst air quality in the country after its level of particulate matter (PM10) was measured at over 1000 µg/m3 on Friday afternoon.

According to the government’s existing guidelines, air quality is considered “healthy” if its PM10 level stands below 50 µg/m³, “moderate” when the level stands between 50 and 150 µg/m³, “unhealthy” between 150 and 350 µg/m³, “very unhealthy” between 350 and 420 µg/m³ and “dangerous” when it surpasses 420 µg/m³.

Meanwhile in Boyolali, Central Java, local authorities have also struggled to put out fires that have razed the forests on the slope of Mount Merbabu since Sept. 27.

The fires, as of Friday, had burned some 270 hectares of land including a protected forest and agricultural fields in Ampel district.

An Air Tractor AT-802F aircraft was deployed to help extinguish the fires by dropping water bombs.

“The bombing was started on Thursday afternoon. Three hours later some of the fires were extinguished. Today [Friday], we are checking the affected areas while at the same time extinguishing remaining fires we find along our way,” Mount Merbabu Park head Wisnu Wibowo said.

Ganug Nugroho Adi from Boyolali contributed to this article