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.