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)."