Habibie orders agencies to prevent forest fires

Habibie orders agencies to prevent forest fires

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie ordered on Friday all
government agencies and ministries to boost cooperation in
preventing the outbreak of forest fires this year, warning of
their potential danger to human life in the country and the
region.

Speaking in a ceremony at the State Palace to commemorate
World Environment Day, the President said uncontrollable fires
this year could become natural disasters on the scale of the
fires in 1997.

He singled out the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations to
lead the campaign to stop illegal land clearing through burning,
which led to the 1997 disaster.

"Such efforts must receive serious attention to prevent
similar disasters from occurring again," the President said
before presenting environmental awards to individuals and village
cooperatives for their contributions to preserving the
environment.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the
Indonesian Environment Forum (Walhi), in 1997 alone more than one
million hectares of forests were ravaged, mostly in Sumatra and
Kalimantan. The Ministry of Forestry's estimate is 300,000
hectares.

Reckless logging for domestic and export purposes, and
plantation companies' land clearing practices, were cited among
causes of the fires. On a smaller scale, slash-and-burn land
clearing activities by nomadic farmers also contributed.

A thick haze covered Kalimantan and Sumatra and parts of
Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand, sparking an
international outcry.

More than 650 people died of drought-related diseases, with
many others threatened with malnutrition from lost crops.

WWF called the forest fires a "planetary disaster". Then
president Soeharto declared the disaster a national catastrophe.

Singapore's Ministry of Environment said on Thursday that
satellite images detected a significant increase in "hot spots"
or fires in Indonesia, due mainly to plantation fires.

"The satellite pictures have been sent to the Indonesian and
Malaysian authorities as part of the subregional cooperation to
deal with fires in Sumatra and Borneo," it said in a statement.

Meteorological Service of Singapore deputy director Wong Teo
Suan said induced rains could limit their spread.

"It won't be like the prolonged haze we saw in 1997," Reuters
quoted Wong as saying on Thursday.

The Malaysian government also dismissed fears that recent hazy
skies over the capital heralded a recurrence of the smog.

Environment minister Law Hieng Ding said authorities had
expressed concern to their Indonesian counterparts over the
recent increase in the number of hot spots.

"Malaysia has been involved in helping Indonesia outline and
adopt the new measures," Law said.

He added that latest reports pinpointed 82 hot spots in
Sumatra and 50 in Kalimantan.

"They (Indonesian officials) have assured us that many of the
hot spots are caused by farmers' land-clearing activities for
cultivation," he said.

During Friday's ceremony, Habibie presented Kalpataru awards
to Domingus dos Reis from Baucau, East Timor, for his pioneering
work in converting 150 hectares of idle land into paddy fields
after constructing a 1,500-meter-long irrigation channel.

Other recipients were from Central Java, South Sulawesi and
East Kalimantan.

Several cities including Lumajang in East Java, Medan in North
Sumatra, Jambi and Jakarta also received awards for their efforts
to improve the quality of the environment. (prb)