ASEAN to establish fund to fight fires and smog

ASEAN to establish fund to fight fires and smog

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Southeast Asia is to set up a special
fund to finance the fight against devastating forest fires in
Indonesia of the kind that choked the region with smog last year,
Singapore's environment minister said yesterday.

"We have discussed the concept of an ASEAN fund," Yeo Cheow
Tong said at the end of a one-day meeting of environment
ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

No estimate had been put on the likely size of the fund and
"at the moment we are still talking in terms of trying to obtain
donations", Yeo told a news conference.

"Our problem is not setting a limit. Our problem is impressing
on the donors prevention is better than cure."

Opening the meeting on Friday, Yeo said Southeast Asia could
not afford to let its guard down in the battle against blazes and
smog which cost billions of dollars as an economic crisis gripped
the region late last year.

"ASEAN cannot afford another fire and haze disaster. A repeat
of this disaster will surely aggravate the already bad regional
economic situation," he said.

Donors targeted by ASEAN included the United States, already a
contributor of some US$6 million to the fire fighting effort, and
the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which plans a
US$10 million fund of its own.

Other nations and organizations would also be asked for cash
to be channeled into air surveillance operations to identify
fires better and snuff them out before they become seriously
damaging.

Air surveillance, although costly, is an effective fire
fighting tool and was one of the main ministerial recommendations
to beat fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan and avert a recurrence of
disaster-level blazes.

The ministers also called on ASEAN governments to change laws
and include provisions to blame land owners for any fires on
their property as an added deterrence.

Yeo said recent heavy rains which had put out fires in East
Kalimantan, Indonesia's side of Borneo, were in danger of
diverting attention away from the need to prevent fresh fires
starting with the return of the dry season later this month.

"In fact, over the past few days, fires have been detected in
some parts of Sumatra. It is important that we take firm and
decisive measures to put out these fires and prevent new ones
from developing," he told the ministers.

Fires are started by plantation owners and farmers to clear
land for planting during the dry season. Last year, vastly
worsened by a searing drought, smoke from fires in Indonesia
spread over much of the region.

Sumatra, the huge Indonesian island next to Singapore and
Malaysia, was the source of much of the choking smoke which
caused widespread health problems and economic damage.

The smog caused $4.4 billion in damage and wiped out five
million hectares (12 million acres) of forest, agricultural land
and bush -- equivalent in size to Costa Rica.

Early this year, fires destroyed 500,000 hectares of bush and
forest in East Kalimantan.

Yeo's call was also echoed by environment experts who said
they were afraid the recent rains would cloud the authorities'
eyes and take the issue off the front burners.

"We hope the attention doesn't die away because the fires of
1997 and 1998 have gone out. This should be seen as a long-term,
chronic problem," said Timothy Jessup, senior policy advisor of
the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Indonesia.