More firms probed over Riau fires
More firms probed over Riau fires
Puji Santoso and PC Naomy, Pekanbaru/Jakarta
The government is investigating more plantation companies accused
of massive slash-and-burn land-clearing, which has blanketed
parts of Southeast Asia with noxious haze.
Satellite monitoring detected at least 28 plantation companies
and industrial timber estates (HTI) that have allegedly started
wildfires across Riau province on Sumatra, which lies just to the
west of Malaysia and Singapore, the Riau forestry office deputy
head Sudirno said on Friday.
He said many hotspots were discovered in their concession
areas by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) satellite.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Riau administration decided to sue
10 plantation firms for Rp 2 trillion (US$222.2 million) over the
blazes and the resulting haze crisis. Local officials, however,
declined to name them.
Sudirno and Riau forestry office head of forest protection
division Sadrizal Labay could not say whether there were 18 new
ones for a total of 28 or there were 28 new ones for a total of
38 firms being investigated.
Sadrizal said his office dispatched a team to the field to
verify what was seen on the satellite imagery.
Thick haze from forest fires and bush fires have covered parts
of Sumatra and Kalimantan this week, delaying a number of flights
to and from Riau.
Smoke has also drifted to neighboring Singapore and Malaysia,
shrouding several cities in an unhealthy haze.
However on Friday, visibility and air conditions in the Riau
capital of Pekanabru seemed to improve somewhat after a breeze
blew some of it away from Riau at least.
Officials and environmentalists have warned that the haze
would continue to cover a number of cities in Sumatra until heavy
rains come in October or the torching of the forests is stopped
by other means.
In Jakarta, the Ministry of Forestry claimed there were a
total of more than 6,000 hotspots across Indonesia with 2,514 of
them detected in the concession areas of industrial timber
plantations.
Masyhud, the ministry's head of data analysis, said on Friday
that more than half of those hotspots were detected in Riau
province.
And 1,638 of those were identified on plantation areas and
industrial timber estates, he added.
"The data should be used by local authorities to alert them
about potential fires. They can't merely depend on us. They
should be more active, especially since the implementation of
regional autonomy," Masyhud said.
Environmentalists blamed the fires and haze on weak law
enforcement and a lack of coordination among the central and
local authorities in combating the annual forest fires in the
country.
"Everyone is pointing the finger elsewhere and shifting the
blame," said Indro Sugianto, the executive director of Indonesian
Center for Environmental Law (ICEL).
He dismissed the government's claims that most of the fires
were being set by small farmers because between them they only
had a small amount of land.
Masyhud said the Ministry of Forestry has sent a team of 200
personnel from the forest fire fighting brigade to Riau to help
put out the blazes there.
Meanwhile, Riau health office head Syaiful Bahri Rab said on
Friday at least 267 residents had suffered respiratory problems
due to the haze.
The figure was based on data of patients who were treated at
15 community health centers and hospitals in Pekanbaru, he added.