Residents told to don masks

PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan: Head of the provincial health office M.H. Torisz has advised residents to wear masks because haze resulting from forest fires in the province is getting thicker, Antara reported.

He said his office was monitoring the thickness of the haze in the province and had taken precautions to deal with respiratory problems caused by air pollution.

There are an estimated 300 hot spots in the province, mostly found in Sintang regency. The haze has also spread to neighboring Brunei Darussalam and Sarawak in Malaysia.

Separately, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) representative office in Indonesia on Tuesday handed a plan to manage Betung Kerihun National Park to the West Kalimantan administration.

"WWF, in cooperation with the International Timber Trade Organization (ITTO), has an interest in helping the Indonesian government draw up the plan to manage the area stretching from Betung Kerihun National Park in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, to Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary in Serawak, Malaysia," West Kalimantan Governor H. Aspar Aswin said.

The two conservation areas constitute a trans-boundary conservation area which covers 200 hectares in Lanjak Entimau and 800 hectares in Betung Kerihun, he said.