Haze from farming practices: Official

JAKARTA (JP): The haze troubling some neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore over the past few weeks has been caused by slash-and-burn farming practices rather than forest fires, an official said yesterday.

Soekardjo Wirjosiswojo, an expert staff member of the Ministry of Forestry, said in Denpasar, Bali, over the weekend that research conducted by the ministry showed that most of the smoke resulted from farming practices.

The largest "fire spots" appeared on farmlands and timber estates, he said. Farmers cleared land by setting fire to bushes and shrubs, a practice also conducted by private logging companies when clearing tropical forests.

He pointed out that the Ministry of Forestry has made repeated calls against the burning of trees and bushes for clearing land for farming, and for forest concessionaires to use chemicals to speed up decomposition instead.

"(Using chemicals) won't cause smoke. This method has been tried out in Kalimantan," he was quoted by Antara as saying, but he did not elaborate.

"In some countries, such as Australia, people use chemicals to clear land and obtain satisfactory results," he said.

Complaints about thick smoke blanketing many parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan and neighboring countries have been voiced time and again. From Singapore, for instance, residents complained about an acrid smell infiltrating streets and buildings while hospitals worried about an increase in respiratory disorders, eye infections and skin irritations.

DPA reported that regional flights from Singapore have had to be rerouted due to poor visibility and school teachers have moved physical education classes indoors. In Kuala Lumpur, smoke and smog have merged into a thick, threatening toxic cloud which hovers over the city, the agency said.

Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to cooperate in dealing with the haze, while Singapore has helped by providing satellite images of smoke hot spots.

Most forest fires have been occurring in Central and West Kalimantan, South Sumatra, Riau and Jambi.

State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said last week that fires destroyed 300,000 hectares of forests in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Fires devastated 161,000 hectares of land last year, while about 3,000 hectares were destroyed in 1994 and 1995. The worst forest fires in Indonesia were in 1982 when three million hectares of land was destroyed.

Disaster

Separately, in Yogyakarta, a geography expert called for better preparation yesterday to cope with the possibility of natural disasters brought about by the prolonged drought.

Chairman of the Center for Natural Disaster Studies at Gadjah Mada University, Sudibyakto, described four steps to anticipate disasters: readiness to face disasters, disaster emergency response, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Addressing a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of the university's School of Geography, Sudibyakto said that readiness to face disasters, for example, could be translated into activities such as conducting research and making maps of potential disaster areas.

Sudibyakto said the impact of natural disasters should be handled by all relevant sectors. Both local and national government institutions have to participate -- coordination becomes crucial, he said.

"The community, too, has to be involved. If not for the emergency response, rehabilitation and reconstruction stages, then they should contribute to efforts in preventing disasters from occurring," he said. (swe/swa)