Indonesia agrees to move up regional meet on haze

JAKARTA: Indonesia agreed yesterday to move up a regional meeting on forest fires on Sumatra island that have caused record-setting pollution in the country and neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
Minister of Environment Balthasar Kambuaya said that Indonesia supports a Malaysian proposal to hold the ministerial meeting on transboundary haze pollution early next month instead of in August as was scheduled.
“Malaysia proposes it to be expedited to early July, and Indonesia supports that,” Kambuaya said after meeting with his Malaysian counterpart G. Palanivel. Other participants in the meeting are Brunei, Singapore and Thailand. Kambuaya said he told Palanivel what steps have been taken by Indonesia to overcome the haze problem. Palanivel said his country was ready to help Indonesia to fight the fires.
“The most important thing at this moment is to control the haze situation in Sumatra, with all of potential that we have, including by cloud-seeding, water bombing and firefighters,” Palanivel said.
Indonesia has formally apologized to Singapore and Malaysia over the haze that has affected air quality and caused respiratory problems in the three countries. He said police have arrested 14 farmers accused of setting illegal fires. The fires are a cheap way for farmers to clear their land.
Malaysia had stepped up pressure on Indonesia to do more to stop outbreaks of smog after fires on Sumatra island sparked Southeast Asia’s worst air pollution crisis for years.
Palls of smoke from slash-and-burn agricultural fires pushed haze levels to record highs in Singapore last week, shrouding the city in smog, and badly affected parts of Malaysia.
While smog is an annual occurrence during the dry season this year’s outbreak has been the worst for years, sparking tension between Indonesia and its neighbours.
Thousands of firefighters are tackling the blazes in Riau province and have been helped in recent days by heavy rain. Officials said the number of fire hotspots detected late Wednesday had fallen to just six from 265 the previous day.
After meeting his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta, Malaysian Environment Minister G. Palanivel urged Indonesia to ratify a key Southeast Asian treaty aimed at tackling smog.
“The environment minister has to deal with this ratification,” he said.
“If they can ratify the treaty then they can go forward.”
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreement is aimed at tackling the annual outbreaks of smog by increasing regional cooperation.
It was struck in 2002 following Southeast Asia’s worst haze crisis in 1997-1998, that was estimated to have cost the region $ 9 billion.
But while the ASEAN deal is principally aimed at stopping haze that comes from forest and slash-and-burn fires in Indonesia, Jakarta is the only member of the 10-country bloc yet to ratify it.
Palanivel said that a meeting between five ASEAN members on haze scheduled for August would be brought forward to July 17 due to the current crisis.
The minister also said Malaysia and Indonesia had agreed to cooperate in a bid to permanently resolve the recurring haze problem.
“Malaysia has expressed the hope that government officials from both countries could work constantly in monitoring and checking the hotspots,” he was quoted as saying by Malaysia’s official Bernama news agency.
Singapore and Malaysia had demanded that Indonesia punish those behind the blazes, but Jakarta said fires had also been set in plantations owned by their neighbors.
Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said 14 people had so far been arrested on suspicion of starting fires, 11 of whom were linked to companies and three of whom were smallholders. He did not give any more details about those who were linked to companies.
The skies in Singapore are now clear thanks to rains and favorable winds and in Malaysia on Thursday the haze eased dramatically as rain fell in many places after hitting hazardous levels in recent days.