ASEAN vows swift action on choking haze

ASEAN vows swift action on choking haze

Mynardo Macaraig, Agence France-Presse/Manila

Southeast Asian environment ministers on Tuesday promised swift
action to help each other with the region's recurrent problem of
choking haze from forest fires and with other threats to
biodiversity.

"We stand ready to assist each other by mobilizing our
resources to mitigate fires in the region during critical
periods," the ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) said in a statement after meeting in the
Philippine capital.

The ministers "resolved to further intensify regional
cooperation" by stepping up previous measures such as joint
emergency response, simulation exercises, inventory of fire-
fighting resources and guidelines for "zero burning and
controlled burning practices."

They said they had established "a panel of ASEAN experts on
fire and haze assessment and coordination to undertake rapid
assessment of the situation on the ground during impending
critical periods."

This panel would help ease "immediate response and effective
mobilization of resources in the region," the communique said. It
did not identify the members of the panel.

Regional cooperation would be further enhanced at ASEAN
meetings on the haze in Indonesia in December, the ministers
added.

The ministers also said they would call on ASEAN leaders to
provide guidance on the issue during their summit in Malaysia in
December.

The haze -- blamed on forest and peat fires and open burning
on plantations in Indonesia and parts of Malaysia -- again
enveloped both countries and the south of Thailand this year.

All three countries are members of ASEAN along with Brunei,
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
Malaysian deputy environment minister S. Sothinathan said earlier
that pollution remains a regional concern, noting that his
government had been forced to declare a state of emergency in
August.

He remarked that remedial measures to deal with the haze go
into effect "only after the fire has started."

"What we would like to see is (measures) to prevent this from
happening," he said.

Malaysia and Singapore have called for a more coordinated
response from ASEAN to the annual haze problem, which in 1997-98
cost the region some US$9 billion by disrupting air travel,
tourism and other businesses.

Malaysia has been worst hit by the smoke and dust, which in
August sent air pollution to extremely hazardous levels and
forced schools and an airport to close.

At the summit, the ministers also launched a new autonomous
ASEAN Center for Biodiversity that is being supported by both the
ASEAN and the European Union.

The center, based in La Union town just south of Manila, will
receive six million euros (US$7.2 million) in funding from the
European Union over the next three years with 1.3 million euros
in counterpart funding from ASEAN, said officials of the ASEAN
secretariat.

It is hoped that the center will eventually become an
independent research center on the lines of the International
Rice Research Institute, the secretariat said.