ASEAN ministers vow to curb pollution
ASEAN ministers vow to curb pollution
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Indonesia yesterday announced plans to open up fire-prone areas for redevelopment as ASEAN's environment ministers adopted a joint plan to curb cross-border pollution plaguing the region.
The ministers of the six-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said the plan reflected a common resolve to curb common environmental problems facing the region.
"It is a new milestone to beat transboundary pollution," Malaysia's environment minister Law Hieng Ding told reporters at the end of four days of talks with his ASEAN colleagues to adopt a 23-page communique outlining the plan of action.
Singapore's Environment Minister Teo Chee Hean said the island state particularly welcomed the long-term measures agreed by Indonesia to minimize forest fires and the burning of biomass from land clearance.
A thick haze enveloped large swathes of Southeast Asia for several months last year due to forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, causing respiratory problems and disrupting flight schedules at regional airports.
"The Singapore Meteorological Service will offer to disseminate weather reports and satellite images showing the forest fires in the region to ASEAN members," Teo said.
The ASEAN Cooperation Plan on Transboundary Pollution entails a four-point strategy to deal with the haze.
It involved timely detection and prevention of forest fires, prohibition of burning of biomass, ensuring minimal pollution from local sources during the hazy periods, and promoting investments in the alternative uses of biomass from land clearance.
Indonesian Minister for the Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said Jakarta planned to turn fire-prone peat fields into agricultural areas and allow commercial mining of coal beds in its forests to help reduce the outbreak of fires.
"Investors are invited to make use of our peat fields and coal beds," Sarwono said.
The Indonesian government, which lost US$250 million in forest and other resources due to the fires last year alone, is also establishing a coordinating agency to prevent forest fires.
Earlier this month Indonesia said it had set up an early warning system for forest fires.
While some of the fires started off spontaneously due to the dry season, others were reportedly triggered by farmers who adopt slash-and-burn farming practices.
Sarwono said the Indonesian government has received applications to turn some of the peat field areas in central Kalimantan on Borneo island into rice estates, and palm oil and pineapple plantations.
The government is also looking at legislation to allow commercial coal mining in those areas, Sarwono said.
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore were represented by their environment ministers while the other two ASEAN members the Philippines and Thailand were represented by senior officials.