ASEAN agency warns RI of severe drought<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Center (ASMC) has warned
\nIndonesia of severe drought that might exacerbate haze in the
\ncountry between July and October this year.<\/p>\n
Deputy State Minister of the Environment for Environmental
\nConservation Liana Bratasida said on Monday that ASMC issued the
\nwarning during a meeting in Manila, the Philippines last week.<\/p>\n
\"ASMC has warned us that although El Nino has weakened,
\nIndonesia must be alert to haze due to annual forest fires,\" she
\ntold The Jakarta Post on Monday.<\/p>\n
She called on the public not to clear land through burning
\nwhen converting forests into plantations and urged local
\ngovernment to take legal action against those who still did that.<\/p>\n
Last week, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) also
\nwarned that East Kalimantan, the northern part of West Kalimantan
\nand Central Kalimantan would be hit by drought this year due to
\ntheir unusually low rainfall.<\/p>\n
It also called on the public and companies there not to clear
\nland by using slash-and-burn methods as it would only result in
\nchoking haze.<\/p>\n
However, according to the Indonesian Forum on the Environment
\n(Walhi), cheap slash-and-burn methods were still used by
\nplantation firms and local people, as thick haze had started to
\nblanket Pekanbaru, Riau; Palembang, South Sumatra; and Pontianak,
\nWest Kalimantan.<\/p>\n
The haze has caused respiratory problems in Pontianak, with
\nthe town's mayor Buchari Abdurrahman calling on his citizens to
\nput on masks. It also caused eye irritation in Pekanbaru and
\nPalembang.<\/p>\n
Walhi claimed that plantation firms were emboldened to burn
\nland as the government appeared to have no intention to take
\nlegal action against the perpetrators, despite the existence of
\nthe ban.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Forestry, however, is still unsure about the
\nsource of the haze, although it discovered over 227 hotspots in
\nRiau via satellite last Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Ministry has not yet found any hotspots in West Kalimantan
\nand South Sumatra due to cloudy conditions.<\/p>\n
Walhi executive director Longgena Ginting said that the
\ngovernment must strictly enforce its ban on forest conversion and
\nland clearance through slash-and-burn.<\/p>\n
\"The ban must be seriously enforced ... which means that any
\nperpetrators that burn land must be put into jail,\" he said.
\n\"Otherwise, we will see more damaging haze this year.\"<\/p>\n
Director general of forest protection and natural conservation
\nI Made Subadia admitted that relevant ministries still worked
\nwithout coordination in tackling the haze problem.<\/p>\n
Bodies charged with responsibility for tackling the haze
\nproblem include the Ministry of Forestry, the Office of the State
\nMinister of the Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and
\nseveral national agencies.<\/p>\n
\"We are now putting together a coordinating team to tackle the
\nproblem,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He also said his ministry had deployed five brigades late last
\nyear, each comprising over 100 personnel, to Riau, North Sumatra,
\nJambi, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan, which are prone to
\nforest fires.<\/p>\n
\"We expect the brigades to be able to prevent forest fires and
\nif there are any, to contain them, \" he said.<\/p>\n
This year, the Ministry of Forestry will deploy 10 more
\nbrigades in a number of locations including Bengkulu, West
\nSumatra, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, and South Sulawesi.<\/p>",
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