Haze of smoke, forest fires

Although some regions struggled through floods and landslides, several areas in Indonesia suffered forest fires, which have become routine during incidents during long spells of the dry season. In some areas of Sumatra, such as North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra, hundreds of hot spots have been spotted. Riau is the area most adversely effected: early last week, it was monitoring some 870 hot spots in the region. The result of all these fires is a thick haze of smoke has hit the region and its neighbors.

Forest fires are routine incidents that occur every year. The fires may be caused by natural or human factors. To clear land for plantations, according to the executive director of the North Sumatra chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, Efendi Panjaitan, there are indications that some plantation companies make use of a logging-and-burning system.

If the haze in the region is attributable to the burning of forest areas, especially protected forest areas, we will all be the sadder. Indonesia, famous for its tropical forests, which measure the largest in the world after Brazil, has lost millions of hectares of land because of the burning of forest areas.

Still fresh in our minds are the forest fires of 1997, which compelled us to accept fire-fighting volunteers from Malaysia. The inability of the country to deal with the problem remains controversial; is Indonesia incapable or is it just unwilling?

Without proper law enforcement and necessary steps by the government to deal with forest fires, next year will bring with it more reports about forest fires and the accompanying haze.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta