Haze covers the country's blue skies again

Haze covers the country's blue skies again

With the onset of the dry season, sporadic forest fires,
mainly in Kalimantan and Sumatra, have resulted with atmospheric
haze affecting the country and again spreading to neighboring
countries. The Jakarta Post's photographer Arief Suhardiman S.
visited Palembang, South Sumatra from Aug. 11 to Aug. 12 at the
invitation of the Forest Fire Prevention and Control Project.

PALEMBANG, South Sumatra (JP): Thick haze resulting from
spreading forest fires and crop burning in Sumatra and Kalimantan
is coming back.

For Indonesians, haze has become a "routine", but for
neighboring countries like Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and
Singapore, it poses possible health hazards and traffic problems.

Haze covered much of the region for months in 1997, and to a
lesser extent last year. This year, it covers the skies again.

Earlier this month, school students in Riau's provincial
capital of Pekanbaru were told to remain indoors as a precaution
against possible health hazards, while some motorists had to wear
masks to protect themselves. Students were allowed to return to
school four days later, however, after two days of rains
extinguished the fires.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's satellite observation at Palembang's inventory
body of forestry mapping, there were more than 100 hot spots
which existed in several provinces in Sumatra, including Jambi,
Riau and South Sumatra.

Roderick Bowen and Ivan Anderson from the Forest Fire
Prevention and Control Project told the media during a visit
there that the number of spots, which were responsible for the
haze, tended to increase with the decrease of rain in Sumatra.

In many cases, forest fires are blamed on slash-and burn land-
clearing practices performed either by ignorant plantation
companies or traditional farmers.

Alongside the road connecting Palembang and Muara Enim, one
can clearly view blackened plots of land or witness farmers
busily clearing land by burning trees and bushes for the upcoming
planting season.

When questioned about the slash-and-burn method, known in
local terms as sonor, the farmers defended themselves, saying
that it was their tradition.

"We're doing this for the first time... so we didn't cause
the smog," said one farmer.

With his friends, a farmer cleared a plot of land about three
hectares in size. "The two of us will split this," he said,
adding that they will grow chili.

Others like Asman and Sayati, a married couple who have been
practicing sonor since 1973, said they were not responsible for
the haze that has drifted to other countries.

"That's not because of us. It (the haze) comes from Kalimantan
and from motorcycles there (in Malaysia)."