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.