UNEP chief set to meet Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): Executive Director of the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Dr. Klaus Topfer, is scheduled to meet President Soeharto today to review UN relief contributions to help control forest fires in Indonesia.

Topfer, who coordinates the UN response to environmental disasters, will also hold talks with Minister of Forestry and Plantations Sumahadi, State Minister of Environment Juwono Sudarsono and other senior officials.

Meanwhile, Antara reported from Samarinda, in the fire- blighted province of East Kalimantan, that the German-funded Integrated Forest Fire Management (IFFM) project had said poor law enforcement was fostering the spread of forest fires in Indonesia. It called on the government to be tough with plantation and timber companies which started fires.

IFFM team leader Ludwig Schneider said Tuesday the regulation banning the burning of forest in concession areas was poorly implemented and inadequately controlled.

"Many of the fires in East Kalimantan are burning in timber and plantation concession company land," he said, adding that land use policy and forest conversion also contributed to the problem.

Meanwhile, AFP reported yesterday that the United Nations is planning an international conference of donor states to discuss plans to help Indonesia deal with the devastating forest fires.

It quoted Ravi Rajan, the United Nations representative in Jakarta, as saying that a UN disaster assessment team flew to the worst-hit province of East Kalimantan yesterday. It was hoped their findings and those of Topfer's team would provide the basis for the meeting, he added.

"We are hoping this will lead to a donor conference in Geneva in mid-April," Rajan told AFP, adding that a wide range of options, including the provision of equipment and the deployment of foreign firefighters, could be discussed.

"What we do recognize is the need to fight fires on the ground."

The key to countering the fires, which have razed 130,000 hectares (32,000 acres) in East Kalimantan this year, was mobilizing people, he said, adding that a "food-for-firefighting" program could be considered.