ASEAN ministers seek to contain RI forest fires

ASEAN ministers seek to contain RI forest fires

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters): ASEAN environment ministers
agreed yesterday a package of measures to combat smog from
Indonesian forest fires and avert one of the century's worst
ecological disasters.

In a statement released after the meeting in Brunei's capital,
the ministers from the nine-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) proposed that fires in East Kalimantan be
contained rather than any attempt made to put them out.

They planned to establish two special firefighting units for
Kalimantan and Sumatra/Riau, hotbeds of the fire which has sent
smoke over much of the region, causing serious smog and health
problems.

The units would "ensure at all cost that fires are prevented
from becoming an economic and environment threat in Sumatra and
Riau provinces, and that fires in East Kalimantan must be
contained and not allowed to spread to central and west
Kalimantan."

Later at a news conference, Indonesia's state minister for the
environment Juwono Sudarsono said: "It's logical to fight the
fire by containing it, rather than to put out the raging
furnace."

The executive director of the United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP), Klaus Topfer, who attended the meeting, said: "It
is better to fight all fires in the region rather than going for
the easy job."

Topfer had said recently the forest fires could be "one of the
greatest ecological disasters of the millennium".

Fires in East Kalimantan have destroyed 138,030 hectares
(350,600 acres) of forest, plantation and bushland since January,
latest official figures show.

A Japanese remote sensing system has shown up to 5,000 "hot
spots" on the island of Borneo, according to the Center for
International Forestry Research at Bogor, near Jakarta.

Schools in the Malaysian town of Miri in Sarawak state on
Borneo island were closed at the end of March because of the
worsening smog caused by forest fires.

Brunei last month also shut its schools for two weeks due to
the smog.

Pressed about the plan to contain, rather than douse the East
Kalimantan fires, Singapore's minister for the environment and
minister for health Yeo Cheow Tong, said, "We have only a limited
resource and we have to use it to the best of our ability".

The ministers, meeting for their third time to discuss the
fires, also agreed to set up a "central revolving fund" from
regional and international contributions, the statement said.

No details were offered about the size of the fund or amounts
of contribution.

Indonesia will set out a framework for an ASEAN research and
training center for land and forest fire management to be
established at the University of Palangkaraya, central
Kalimantan.

The ministers said they welcomed help from the UNEP.

"The UNEP could continue to play a leading role in
coordinating international assistance to combat and control
regional fire and haze on behalf of ASEAN," the statement said.

The ministers next meet to discuss the smog problem in mid-May
in Indonesia, the statement said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.