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Damage Done, Only Thing Left Is To Prevent Future Haze

By Jackson Sawatan

SINGAPORE, Oct 21 (Bernama) -- On normal days, one could easily see the trees lining the northern coast of Singapore, just a few kilometres across Johor Baharu (JB).

But the days are hardly normal nowadays. Each day, residents on both sides of the causeway, in Brunei, some parts of Thailand as well as in Sumatra and Kalimantan, would wake up to the smell of acrid smoke and polluted mists, hardly able to see beyond a few kilometres.

Friday, Singapore "vanished" from the JB view as visibility was down to only 1-2km because of the haze which has been particularly bad for more than a month now.

"It's as though there's nothing there," said a JB resident, pointing towards the general direction of Singapore from Danga Bay.

Likewise, those living along the northern coast of Singapore could barely make up the JB skyline.

Some experts say the impact of the current haze could be as bad as the 1997-1998 haze crisis where the region, especially Indonesia -- epicentre of the haze problem -- suffered up to US$9 billion (US$1=RM3.64) in losses.

The crisis prompted the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) to sign an Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze in 2002. The treaty recognises the responsibility of states for pollution and establishes an Asean Centre to promote joint actions and closer cooperation on fire-fighting and prevention.

But the haze keeps coming back around this time of the year -- prompting many to ask if there was nothing more that could be done to prevent the problem from recurring.

Indonesia's Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, in an interview with The Straits Times, said the country has made an all-out effort to prevent the ongoing haze from worsening but the dry season made it difficult.

"We started (vanquishing fires) in June and we had everything in place. In September, when the (Indonesian) President (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) visited Singapore, we thought everything was under control.

"We thought we had vanquished the fires but two weeks after that, came the second wave of forest fires... the weather has been so difficult that even experts were misled," he said in the report.

"Slash and burn among the Indonesian farmers as well as plantation workers who started fires on the land they want to work on, has been identified as the source of haze-causing fires but prosecuting them is difficult," he said.

"Of the 300 cases being probed so far, we could only pursue 16," Rachmat said.

The current haze has already done its damage. Civic groups, think tanks and academics from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Thailand met here on Thursday to find ways to address the problem.

"It affected health, education, tourism, air traffic and other economic and social activities," chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, Simon Tay, said.

An economist here put the damage at about $50 million (S$1=RM2.30) for the various sectors in Singapore.

It has been acknowledged that closer cooperation will be needed much more in the future if the recurring problems are to be minimised, if not resolved.

"This should not be viewed as Indonesia being the cause of the problem and exporting the problem to other countries in Asean," said Datuk Seri Mohamed Jawhar Hassan, chairman, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia.

"Rather, countries affected by the haze should see the problem as their common problem and shoulder the responsibility together.

"The current haze might have just taught Asean a lesson -- that until such a shared responsibility is translated into real work on the ground and on the field, the haze will keep on coming back as scheduled, year in and year out," he said.

-- BERNAMA

Malaysia To Forward Proposal On Haze Fund At Asean Ministerial Meeting

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will forward a proposal on the setting up of a haze fund and the use of sound mechanisms to tackle the perennial problem in the region at the Asean Ministerial Meeting on Haze in the Philippines next month.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said he was asked by the Cabinet to propose both measures at the meeting.

The meeting will ascertain how the fund will be managed and the amount needed to tackle the haze problem, he told reporters after handing out Hari Raya aid to the needy at a function organised by the Cheras Umno division here today.

"The cost to bring the haze under control is exorbitant because the applicable method at present involves the use of aircraft for fighting forest fires.

"Therefore it is only fair that other Asean countries share the cost of dousing forest fires in Indonesia, which had failed to tackle the problem over the last few years," he said.

Azmi said Asean would be meeting every three months to find long term and short term measures to tackle the haze.

The setting up of the fund was mooted by the Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak recently.

In 2002, Asean countries agreed to join forces to fight forest and peat soil fire in member states but Indonesia has yet to ratify the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution to tackle the problem.

On the haze in Malaysia, Azmi said there was nothing much that could be done except for hoping for wind and rain to clear the air.

-- BERNAMA

Indonesia faces financial sanctions as forest fires threaten rare species

ELEPHANT and orangutan reserves are under threat from forest fires in Indonesia that have sent a pall of smoke across much of south-east Asia, prompting health warnings and forcing flight cancellations.

The fires, covering millions of acres, have been burning for weeks, triggering fears of a repeat of the months of choking haze in 1997 that cost the region billions in economic losses.

Neighbouring nations have called on Indonesia to ratify swiftly a regional treaty to fight the fires, and warned that they will delay financial assistance if it does not.

In Sumatra's Jambi province yesterday, smoke from more than 100 fires reduced visibility to less than 50 yards.

In Riau province, Sumatran elephants may be moved out of a national park after uncontrolled fires destroyed 247 acres.

Saut Manalu, a senior official at the Tanjung Puting national park on Borneo, where 6,000 orang-utans live, blamed deer hunters for setting many of the fires, which he said were further endangering the under-threat species.

"We can hear them scream at night," he said. "We are focusing on how to put out the fires. If they go out of control, we will take care of the animals. We may need to evacuate them.

"In order to lure deer, hunters often set ablaze certain areas so that fresh grass could grow on the burnt land. Deer would graze there because they like young leaves."

Indonesia's neighbours are increasingly frustrated at Jakarta's failure to tackle the annual dry-season fires.

Singapore, which has suffered from the haze since the start of October, saw its air Pollutants Standards Index climb to an unhealthy 130 yesterday. Malaysia's foreign minister said a collective fund was needed to battle the problem.

"We need to have a fund where everybody contributes, because we are all affected," he said.

"I don't think it will be fair for any country like Malaysia [to] spend on our own. It's too big, it's too much. The source is in Indonesia."

Local officials praised the steps taken by environmental ministers from Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore to pressure Indonesia to ratify the haze agreement, but a leading local environmental organisation said it failed to adopt adequate preventive measures.

"It failed to come up with a concrete agenda both in the short and long term," said Chalid Muhammad, executive director of the Indonesian Environmental Forum.

Indonesia should have proposed emergency laws to empower the government to revoke permits from plantation companies found to be using illegal cut-and-burn methods, he said.

Malam Sambat Kaban, Indonesia's forestry minister, said more than 75 per cent of the fires were not in government forests, but on plantations and farms of private companies and local people.

He said the Central Kalimantan area was the worst hit, with about 2.5 million acres of peatland in one area on fire. Peat fires are difficult to extinguish and can burn for months.

Indonesia bans slash-and-burn practices by farmers and plantations, but prosecutions take time and few have stuck.

Source: The Scotsman

Indonesia asks for help over fires polluting region

By Ahmad Pathoni

PEKANBARU, Indonesia, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Indonesia appealed for help on Friday to fight forest and brush fires that have spread choking smoke over much of Southeast Asia as regional environment ministers prepare to meet for talks.

The ministers from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei were due to hold talks later on Friday in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, an area of Sumatra island badly affected by the raging fires.

Indonesia's neighbours have become increasingly frustrated over Jakarta's inability to deal with the annual dry season blazes, which in past weeks have caused serious air pollution across the region, particularly in Malaysia and Singapore.

"We are asking for assistance in terms of equipment or expertise. We will see what they can offer to us," Indonesian Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban told reporters.

Malaysia has proposed that the five countries buy two Russian-built Ilyushin aircraft designed to scoop up sea water and douse fires, Riau police chief Ito Sumardi told reporters.

The plan was for the planes, costing $90 million each, to be placed in Sumatra and Kalimantan, also in Indonesia, he said.

Kaban said Indonesia hoped its neighbours would recognise the complexity of the problem and that officials would be invited to take part in a field trip on Saturday to view affected areas.

The fires, often started deliberately by farmers or big plantation businesses, have been burning for weeks in parts of Indonesia, creating a choking haze that has made many ill, shut airports and threatened wildlife in protected forests.

Kaban said more than 75 percent of the fires were not in government-controlled forests but in plantations and farms belonging to private companies and local people.

He said that Central Kalimantan on the Indonesian part of Borneo island was the worst hit, with around 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of peat land in one area on fire. Peat fires are particularly hard to put out and can burn for months.

"This is where most smoke came from," Kaban said.

MASK-WEARING PROTESTERS

Outside a hotel where senior officials were meeting to flesh out details for the ministerial meeting, about 20 environmental activists in face masks held a protest over the fires.

"Business people are receiving special treatment from the government while the people here and in neighbouring countries are suffering from the haze. This environmental disaster is an embarrassment for Indonesia," Johnny Mundong, head of the environmental group WALHI Riau, told Reuters.

Visibility in some areas of Indonesia was cut to 30 metres (100 ft) last week, forcing cars to use headlights, although there was only a slight haze over Pekanbaru on Friday.

Sumardi said 70 people had been arrested over the fires, most of them workers in fields.

"But we are investigating three companies and our investigation is leading to the management of the companies."

Indonesia bans slash-and-burn practices by farmers, timber firms and plantations. But prosecutions take time and few have stuck. Sumardi conceded that a lack of cash was hurting the investigations.

Under pressure from its neighbours, Indonesia said on Thursday it would ratify a Southeast Asian pact that calls for regional cooperation to deal with the forest fires.

The Association of South East Asian Nations approved the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002, but Indonesia's parliament has yet to ratify it, angering countries affected by the smoke, known as haze in the region.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has apologised to his neighbours for the haze, has pledged to use all resources available to put out the fires.

Severe fires and smog during a drought in 1997-98 made many people ill across a wide area of Southeast Asia, cost local economies billions of dollars and badly hit the tourism and airline sectors.

Source: Reuters

Forest fires result from government failure in Indonesia

Forest fires result from government failure in Indonesia
October 15, 2006

Indonesia is burning again. Smoke from fires set for land-clearing in South Kalimantan (Borneo) and Sumatra are causing pollution levels to climb in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok, resulting in mounting haze-related health problems, traffic accidents, and associated economic costs. The country's neighbors are again clamoring for action but ultimately the fires will burn until they are extinguished by seasonal rains in coming months.

2006 fires in Borneo and Sumatra Smoke from agricultural and forest fires burning on Sumatra (left) and Borneo (right) in late September and early October 2006 blanketed a wide region with smoke that interrupted air and highway travel and pushed air quality to unhealthy levels. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on October 1, 2006, shows places where MODIS detected actively burning fires marked in red. Smoke spreads in a gray-white pall to the north. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.

The fires -- and their choking haze -- have become a yearly occurrence in Indonesia. Some years are worse than others -- especially when dry el Niño conditions turn the region's forests into a tinderbox -- but the overall trend is not encouraging. Why do these catastrophic fires continue to burn?

Fault should lie first with the Indonesian government for its systematic failure to enforce laws designed to reduce the country's appalling rate of deforestation. Since 1990 official figures show Indonesia has lost a quarter of its forest cover. Loss of primary forests has been even worse: nearly 31 percent of the archipelago's old growth forest have fallen to loggers and land developers over the same period. Menacingly, deforestation rates are not slowing. Annual forest loss has accelerated by 19 percent since the close of the 1990s, while yearly primary forest loss has expanded by 26 percent. These statistics should be an embarrassment to Indonesia and are testament to the government's impotence in dealing with forest loss and incompetence in reigning in cronyism and corruption.

Forest loss in Indonesia

The direct causes of forest loss in Indonesia are not complex. Most deforestation is the result of logging and land conversion for agriculture. Today Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of tropical timber -- a commodity that generates upwards of US$5 billion annually -- and the second largest producer of palm oil, one of the world's most productive oil crops used in everything from cookies to biofuel.

Deforestation rates are climbing in Indonesia

Legal timber harvesting affects 700,000-850,000 hectares of forest per year in Indonesia, but widespread illegal logging boosts the overall logged area to at least 1.2-1.4 million hectares and possibly much higher—in 2004, Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim said that 75 percent of logging in Indonesia is illegal. Despite an official ban on the export of raw logs from Indonesia, timber is regularly smuggled to Malaysia, Singapore, and other Asian countries. By some estimates, Indonesia is losing more than $1 billion a year in tax revenue from the illicit trade. Illegal cutting is also hurting legitimate timber-harvesting businesses by reducing the supply of logs available for processing, and undercutting international prices for wood and wood products.

Logging in Indonesia has opened some of the most remote, forbidding places on Earth to development. After decimating much of the forests in less remote locations, timber firms have stepped up operations on the island of Borneo and in provinces on New Guinea, where great swaths of forests have been cleared in recent years. For example, more 20 percent of Indonesia's logging concessions are located in Indonesian Papua, up from 7 percent of in the 1990s.

Beyond logging, conversion of forest for large-scale agriculture, especially oil palm plantations, has been an important contributor to forest loss in Indonesia. The area of land covered by oil palm expanded from 600,000 hectares in 1985 to more than 5.3 million hectares by 2004. The government hopes to see this expanse nearly double within the next decade and, through its transmigration program, has encouraged farmers to turn wild forest lands into plantations. Since the fastest and cheapest way to clear new land for plantations is by burning, the effort has worsened fires: every year hundreds of thousands of acres hectares go up in smoke as developers and agriculturalists ignite the countryside before monsoon rains begin to fall in October or November.

Government failure

While Indonesia has laws to protect forests and limit agricultural burning, they are poorly enforced. Forest management in the country has long been plagued by corruption and lack of political commitment. Underpaid government officials combined with the prevalence of disreputable businessmen and shifty politicians, has traditionally meant that logging bans go unenforced, trafficking in endangered species is overlooked, environmental regulations are ignored, parks are used as timber farms, and fines and prison sentences never come to pass. Corruption, combined with an atmosphere of cronyism established under ex-president General Suharto, has at times directly undermined efforts to control forest fires: in 1997, the country was unable to use its special off-budget reforestation fund to help combat the fires because the money had been ear-marked for a failing car project owned by the dictator's son. Today the government still refuses to effectively punish those who violate laws that ban fire-setting for land clearing.

It's time for the Indonesian government to get serious about addressing deforestation and the recurrent fires. Political commitment is key -- without it, vast sums of donor money will continue to be squandered without stemming illegal logging and forest loss.

The government needs to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, a convention signed in 2002 following the 1997-1998 forest fires. The agreement calls for multi-national cooperation to combat fires in the region. Ratifying the agreement would be a first sign of political commitment to the issue, but the government would then need to be follow up with implementation and good governance initiatives, like enforcement of its relatively strict codes banning land burning. Without enforcement, laws are useless. Indonesia can no longer afford to overlook criminal activates by powerful interests. For example, it needs to follow up on Malaysia's request to prosecute Malaysian companies involved in forest fires in South Kalimantan and Sumatra. Firms found to be responsible for illegal fire-setting, no matter where they are based, should see their business licenses revoked and their officers imprisoned.

As fires subside this winter, Indonesia should aggressively investigate opportunities afforded by the emergent carbon market which could allow the country to be compensated by protecting forests from development. Other innovative strategies -- from comprehensive timber and agricultural certification to private sponsorship of forest conservation -- should not be overlooked.

International failure

While it's easy to lambaste the Indonesian government for inaction, the international community has also failed. Instead of criticizing Indonesia for its shortcomings, foreign governments should be pledging expertise and massive amounts of assistance. Indonesia's forest fires have global impact by extinguishing biodiversity and contributing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere (the 1997 fires released an estimated 2.67 billion tons of carbon dioxide). Regionally, the fires poison the air and have even been linked to declining rainfall. In a case where Indonesia's problems are the world's problems, the global community needs to rise to the occasion to address these catastrophic fires in an intelligent and well-coordinated manner.

More on Indonesia's fires

Borneo and Sumatra burn as forest fires rage -- 10/4/2006
Forest fires are again buring across Borneo and Sumatra (Indonesia) according to satellite images released this week by NASA.

Forest clearing in forest area near oil palm plantations in Kalimantan Photo by R. Butler Vast areas of natural forest have been converted for soy farms in the Amazon and oil palm plantations in Asia. However, on a relative basis, oil palm may be more ecologically sound due to its higher oil yield than soy. In theory, because oil palm can produce as much as 30 times more oil per unit of area, it could require a lesser amount of land clearing. Of course planting oil palm on previously deforested land would be a preferrable option. At $400 per metric ton, or about $54 per barrel, palm oil is competitive with conventional oil. In the future, palm oil prices are expected to fall further as more oil palm comes under cultivation.

<--a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0524-orangutans.html">Saving Orangutans in Borneo -- 5/24/2006
A look at conservation efforts in Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo. I'm in Tanjung Puting National Park in southern Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. At 400,000 hectares (988,000 acres) Tanjung Puting is the largest protected expanse of coastal tropical heath and peat swamp forest in southeast Asia. It's also one of the biggest remaining habitats for the critically endangered orangutan, the population of which has been great diminished in recent years due to habitat destruction and poaching. And orangutans have become the focus of a much wider effort to save Borneo's natural environment. We are headed to Campy Leakey, named for the renowned Kenyan paleontologist Louis Leakey. Here lies the center of the Orangutan Research Conservation Project. Established by Birute Mary Galdikas, a preeminent primatologist and founder of the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), the project seeks to support the conservation and understanding of the orangutan and its rain forest habitat while rehabilitating ex-captive individuals. The Orangutan Research Conservation Project is the public face of orangutan conservation in this part of Kalimantan, the Indonesia-controlled part of Borneo. Borneo, the third largest island in the world, was once home to some of the world's most majestic, and forbidding forests. With swampy coastal areas fringed by mangrove forests and a mountainous interior, much of the terrain was virtually impassable and unexplored. Headhunters ruled the remote parts of the island until a century ago.

<--a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0520-indonesia.html">Shippers in Indonesia fight decree on illegal logging -- 5/21/2006
According to a report from the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), shippers in Indonesia are threatening to stop transporting logs if the government insists on enforcing a new decree on the transportation of illegal timber. The Indonesian National Ship-owners Association says that the Indonesian government's proposal to impound ships carrying illegal timber would cause massive losses to the local shipping industry, according to the ITTO Tropical Timber Market Report. The association contends that authorities should only confiscate illegal wood, not the ships.

<--a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0425-oil_palm.html">Why is palm oil replacing tropical rainforests? -- 4/25/2006
In a word, economics, though deeper analysis of a proposal in Indonesia suggests that oil palm development might be a cover for something more lucrative: logging. Recently much has been made about the conversion of Asia's biodiverse rainforests for oil-palm cultivation. Environmental organizations have warned that by eating foods that use palm oil as an ingredient, Western consumers are directly fueling the destruction of orangutan habitat and sensitive ecosystems. So, why is it that oil-palm plantations now cover millions of hectares across Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand? Why has oil palm become the world's number one fruit crop, trouncing its nearest competitor, the humble banana? The answer lies in the crop's unparalleled productivity. Simply put, oil palm is the most productive oil seed in the world. A single hectare of oil palm may yield 5,000 kilograms of crude oil, or nearly 6,000 liters of crude.

<--a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0405-indo.html">United States and Indonesia to fight illegal logging -- 4/5/2006
The United States and Indonesia today agreed to fight illegal logging in some of the world's most diverse rainforests. Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu and Chief of the US Trade Office (USTR) Robert Portman said the two countries will coordinate efforts of protect Indonesia's forests which have been significantly degraded and destroyed by the illicit timber trade. While Indonesia houses the most extensive rainforest cover in all of Asia, its natural forest area is rapidly being reduced by logging--most of which is illegal. Between 1990 and 2005 the country lost more than 28 million hectares of forest, including 21.7 million hectares of virgin forest, according to data from the United Nations.

<--a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0927-reuters.html">Malaysia urges neighbors to help prevent haze -- 9/27/2005
Malaysia urged its neighbours on Tuesday to ratify an agreement to control air pollution in southeast Asia, a month after forest fires in Indonesia caused some of the worst haze in the region in eight years.

<--a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0906-tina_butler.html">Fires in peat lands cost climate -- 9/6/2005
The tropical rainforests of Kalimantan have long been threatened and increasingly endangered by deforestation and other invasive types of human activity. However, a lesser known ecosystem in the region that is literally coming under fire, is the tropical peat lands, particularly in the central area of the province of Indonesian Borneo.

<--a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0905-fao_fires.html">Forest fires have serious economic and health consequences warns FAO -- 9/5/2005
Large forest fires in South-East Asia, notably in Indonesia, have caused serious health and environmental problems, in particular choking haze in the region, FAO said today.

<--a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0830-malaysia_law.html">Illegal loggers to be imprisoned in Malaysia, possibly executed in Indonesia -- 8/30/2005
Illegal loggers will now face mandatory jail time in Malaysia under new laws expected to be implemented sometime early next year. Existing enforcement efforts, which rely on fines but are poorly enforced, have largely failed to curb illegal wood harvesting in the country's tropical rainforests.

Source:mongabay.com

Indonesia apologises to neighbours over haze

Published: Thursday, 12 October, 2006, 11:02 AM Doha Time

Indonesians pray yesterday for rain in Palangkaraya, on Borneo island, to douse illegal land-clearing fires that have caused a choking haze shrouding parts of Indonesia for weeks

JAKARTA: Indonesia apologised yesterday to Singapore and Malaysia for the choking haze over both countries and agreed to convene a meeting of regional environment ministers to tackle the problem.
Anger had been growing in Malaysia and Singapore over the choking haze from fires raging in Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia, which every year drift over parts of Southeast Asia - damaging health and disrupting transport and tourism.
“On behalf of the Indonesian government, I have to apologise to the neighbouring countries for this incident even though clearly this is not an intentional (act) by Indonesia,” said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
“Clearly, this is not a problem we intend to inflict to our neighbours and we are continuously trying to tackle it and prevent it in future,” Yudhoyono told a press briefing at his office in Jakarta.
Singapore’s foreign ministry said earlier yesterday that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had written to Yudhoyono to “express his disappointment” over the choking smoke.
Lee’s comments followed criticism on Tuesday from Malaysia’s Natural Resources and Environment Minister Azmi Khalid, whose country has also suffered unhealthy air quality levels because of the haze.
Singapore yesterday invited environment ministers from affected nations Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei to a meeting tomorrow to discuss “urgent” measures to deal with the problem.
But Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda insisted the meeting should be held in his country, possibly in Pekanbaru city on Sumatra island’s Riau province, near Singapore.
“We want the meeting to be held nearer to the where the problem is being handled,” he told reporters in Jakarta.
Wirayuda did not say when the meeting in Sumatra would take place, but his comments were greeted with immediate satisfaction by Singapore.
“We are delighted that Indonesia has heeded calls from the region to take urgent action to deal with this serious problem,” said a statement from the island state’s foreign ministry.
“We commend Indonesia for taking responsibility and agreeing to convene this meeting. Singapore was happy to agree to shift the meeting to Indonesia.”
Affected countries attending the meeting could help Indonesia “prevent a recurrence of the problem in the future and take immediate action to mitigate the fires” causing the haze, Singapore’s foreign ministry said.
Large Corps clearing forests for palm or timber plantations and small farmers using slash-and-burn methods have been blamed for the annual burn-off that causes the haze.
Yudhoyono vowed to punish the culprits. “Plantation firms are still violating the law in reopening their fields by setting fire ... or known to us as illegal land clearing. This is clearly a crime that must be punished,” he said.
Last Saturday, Singapore’s environment agency issued a health advisory because of the fog-like haze.
Earlier this week Malaysia issued a hazard warning for ships in the Malacca Strait that split it from Singapore after haze caused visibility to drop along the vital waterway.
In Kuala Lumpur, the Air Pollutant Index hit an unhealthy reading of 159 Monday, forcing people to wear face masks. – AFP

Source: Gulf Times

烟霾年年来袭,马印互相指责何时了？

【本刊郭华盈撰述】假使每年都来袭的烟霾的主要源头仍是加里曼丹与苏门答腊烧笆导致，而大量种植油棕仍被视为替代石油的来源，油棕园拥有者又与政治人物有密切关系，民众即使做出再多的抗议与愤怒，也无法在每年9月、10月再拥蓝天白云。

每年一到烟霾季节，吉隆坡就开始指责雅加达苏门答腊与加利曼丹的农民非法烧笆，雅加达反过来指责涉及烧笆的是马来西亚油棕或终种植公司，吉隆坡则要求雅加达采取法律行动对付，但是后者却没有什么具体行动。

大家很不明白，为什么会有人可以年复一年制造困扰马印新泰等几国，几千万人的烟霾，却又每次都逃过被对付。

澳洲记者町约翰斯（Dean Johns）在《当今大马》的专栏中指出，以今天的卫星科技，印尼政府要鉴定那一家公司或园主涉及非法烧笆，一点也不难。

但是，为什么至今吉隆坡指责雅加达烧笆导致烟霾，雅加达反过来指责马来西亚公司是其中的烧笆者，却又不采取法律行动对付这些不负责任的公司。町约翰斯因此坚信，马印新政府机构应该知道当中的罪魁祸首。

显然，烟霾问题牵连的不只是环境问题，还有跨国的经济政治利益关系，以及执法不严、贪污等问题。

针对马来西亚政府鼓励大量种植油棕生产生物柴油的政策，环保运动分子黄孟祚指出：“生物柴油根本不是真正解决石油匮乏之道。大量种植油棕是错误的政策。”

“首先，马来西亚没有这样多土地来种植油棕，砍伐森林种植油棕也是不正确的，站在生物多样性的原则，生物多样性消失对环境来说是很危险的。”马来西亚政府与私人公司目前在外国包括印尼种植油棕。

印尼环保组织一批环保分子昨天在东盟环境部长会议召开前，聚集在各国代表团下榻的酒店，发动抗议示威，要求政府严惩涉及烧芭的农园公司。

环保组织“哇希尔”廖内省分会，与其他自力救济机构组成联合阵线发动示威。哇尔希廖内省分会副主任门东声称，该联合行动阵线反对这项讨论烟霾问题的区域性会议，烟霾它只会使到印尼蒙羞。他指“前来出席会议的国家也是林火的肇始者，却戴上了在印尼投资的面具”。

示威者举着许多标语，内容包括“印尼已被邻国羞辱”，“马来西亚企业也在廖内省烧芭”，“印尼林业部长卡班下台”及“严惩非法伐木的企业”。

该联合行动阵线在新闻发布会上公布，有63家国内外投资公司涉嫌以烧芭方式开辟或清理农地，其中有6家是马来西亚商人投资的农园公司。此外，有两家印尼华商拥有的纸浆公司也被点名造成廖内省生态环境遭到破坏。

涉及经济政治利益关系

黄孟祚指出，环保的原则是“污染者付费”，但是现在却是由国家来付费，即受害者付费。这都是执法不严所致，即使是在印尼，抓的也是小园主、小农民，犯法大规模的跨国公司可能就逍遥法外。

“特别在国际油棕价格一直看涨，以及马来西亚政府提倡生物柴油的政策下，种植油棕的园地就被大量开发，在这大前提下，大家变得放肆起来。”

他指出，马来西亚与印尼的环境法令的确有缺陷，被当局发现涉及烧笆的园主，最多不是罚款了事，罚款的数额再多也没有采取植被方式清理农地来得昂贵。

“这中间关系微妙，在印尼的大规模油棕园拥有者与马印政治人物有密切关系，要真正严正执法，似乎不容易。”

“况且，印尼至今都还没有签署，这中间不是涉及技术还是金钱问题，而是缺乏政治意愿去落实。再加上东盟本身只是一个没有法律约束力的俱乐部。” 2002年制定的《防止跨国界烟雾污染协议》，东盟10个成员国中，印尼与菲律宾是仅剩的未签署国。

印尼昨天曾表示它将签署防止烟害的东盟协定，但却没有提出时间表。协定一旦签署，东南亚成员国如马来西亚与泰国，就可以迅速调派消防人员，从而提高扑灭林火的效率。

然而，签字后印尼就必须执行完全不烧芭的政策。此外，雅加达也可以动用协定下的烟雾基金，支付灭火和人工降雨的费用。根据印尼法律烧芭是非法的，但由于执行不严厉，一般都不理会这些禁令。

生物柴油不是石油能源匮乏的救星

另一方面，黄孟祚指出：“此外，生产生物柴油还是需要机械来操作，机械也需要使用石油，这根本是不经济的做法，生物柴油还是会对环境造成污染。这中间涉及很大的环境成本，成本是转嫁给消费人。”

“一天消费人认为还有石油的替代品，就会继续浪费能源。我们应该把精力与金钱花费在开发风力与太阳能能源，减低对化石能源的依赖。开发生物柴油只是一种推延依赖的做法。”

黄孟祚以他的观察指出，我国还是有许多人即使车子没有开动，还是继续启动引擎，浪费能源，显然油价即使高涨，还是在他们负担范围内，也没有因此培养节省能源、环保的观念。

他强调，整个社会对能源使用的态度必须改变，不应该继续保留在局部的观念上。

针对烟霾一再重临，本区域国家一副一筹莫展的模样，是不是反映了发展中国家不关注环境问题，黄孟祚倒有不同的看法。

他 指出：“也不能说发展中国家，不管是印尼还是马来西亚不关心这个问题，烟霾的确有一定的影响，只是他们都没有去做应该做的事情。据我们所知，烟霾的源头是 印尼油棕园采取‘刀耕火种’的方式清理农地，而林火一旦烧起来，是不容易扑灭的，其中不少位于偏僻的确的油棕园，扑灭林火的设备也不足。”

刀耕火种方式最廉宜

无论如何，他指出：“发展中国家有经济的考量，即用最廉宜的方式处理（农忙后放火烧笆），而印尼的油棕产量目前也超越马来西亚，印尼更大量开发土地，包括泥炭地种植油棕，泥炭地的问题加剧烟霾问题，因为，泥炭地一旦烧起来就会转成地下焚烧，难于扑灭。”

他指出，“刀耕火种”是传统的耕种方式，已经有很长的历史，不过在只是小农民或小园丘采用的话，还不至于对环境造成太大的问题，但是，一旦人人都这样做，而且连大规模的油棕园也如此做时，就会演变成严重的环境问题。

“特别是大型油棕公司要开发却又不愿意付出更高的代价清理农地，所以采取最高的手段（烧笆），而不是对环境保护、土壤有好处的植被方式，即用推土机把泥土推成梯田的方式，让植物自然腐烂，然后在上面耕种。这样的方式既可以获取自然肥料，也可以避免土地暴露。”

“不过当几乎人人都在做时，也没有人会承认自己涉及烧笆，人人都会指责隔邻的笆园的林火蔓延过来。”

期望风向改变老天下雨

雅加达传来一则印尼千名回教徒跪地求雨的新闻，乍读之下，在这个科技发达，马来西亚都准备送太空人上太空的时代，这或许有点荒谬。但是，回头看看在经济政治利益纠缠不清，烟霾仍笼罩我国天空时，求雨的动作也未必愚昧。

我们不是也在心里暗暗祈求风改变方向，或者来一场大雨，把烟雾驱散吗？那不也是一种在抗议无效，政府缺乏政治意愿改变现状的情况下，民众“听天由命”，祈求于天的动作？

新闻来源：独立新闻在线

Fighting peatland fires the local way

Who says we’re helpless when it comes to the haze? ELIZABETH JOHN writes about one group’s small step in smokin’ Indonesia that could mean a giant leap in haze reduction for Malaysia.

WHIZZ around the world 220,000 times in your car and that crazy exercise will dump 2.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air.

Why’s that silly statistic important enough to print?

Because that’s the same amount of polluting carbon that one forest fire prevention project in Indonesia managed to keep out of air in its first three years.

Just how much lung-clogging particles it’s saved us from is incalculable.

The project was based on a simple idea — block two massive canals that drain water from a sprawling peatland and prevent it from turning into a torch.

The canals — some of the largest irrigation channels in the world — are 30 metres wide and cover a distance that stretches from Kuala Lumpur city to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang.

They are the legacy of the failed Mega Rice Project in remote Central Kalimantan where a million hectares of peat forest was cleared for padi over a decade ago.

At the time, thousands of kilometres of canals were dug to keep the soil drained in the rainy season and irrigated during the dry.

But the peatland stood high above the adjacent rivers, so the canals only sucked them dry. The soils were not suitable for padi and drainage left the parched peat highly flammable.

In the El Nino-driven dry season of 1997-1998, this tinderbox went up in flames and enveloped the region in a shroud of haze.

The site was abandoned but continued to burn periodically through years of inaction, hitting Sarawak particularly hard.

Then three years ago, Malaysian non-governmental organisation Global Environment Centre (GEC), and Wetlands International Indonesia, began talking to locals about blocking off the canals.

The canals were so wide that each could fit a giant IMAX screen between its peaty walls, with space to spare. Together, they were draining millions of cubic metres of water from the area.

"All the experts said we’d need machines to block canals wider than two metres," said GEC director Faizal Parish.

"If we had listened, all our money would have been spent on excavators."

Instead they sat down with locals from the nearest villages, hardy and resourceful people, who’d carved out a life in this desolate corner of Borneo with few amenities.

The groups picked their brains for ideas and brought civil engineers into the talks with local communities and government agencies.

Project partners Wildlife Habitat Canada and Indonesia’s Forest Protection and Nature Conservation directorate were also involved.

And here was born the plan — to block the canals by hand using local techniques.

Each block consisted of three log walls to be built across the canal by a clever use of a lever system and the force of human weight.

Each wall would be 3.3 metres away from the next. The spaces between them were filled with sandbags to staunch the flow of water.

Construction of each block took 50 people, three months and countless trips on narrow boats lugging 25,000 sandbags to the site.

In total, seven blocks were rammed into place along two main canals and a smaller one.

The blocks have since raised the water level in the peatland.

There have been no fires in the area and the forest has started to recover. Locals are fishing in the blocked-off sections of the canal.

The project has protected a site roughly the size of Singapore from fires. As big as that seems, it is only a twentieth of the vast Mega Rice Project.

Faizal believes there are still three to five million hectares of fire-prone peatland in Indonesia.

Some have been drained or illegally logged. Others are abandoned agricultural sites or land where water is poorly managed. Two million hectares have been partly burnt in previous fires.

The group’s also seen success in its other pilot projects in Sumatra, some in areas still being illegally logged.

Though the benefits of these small victories would be felt as much by the hazed-out Asean member countries as the locals, none funded these projects.

The financing came from faraway Canada. Its International Development Agency, through a climate change development fund, contributed RM12.7 million to cover the cost of the four-year programme.

A quarter of this went into community programmes, including the blocks.

Consider this: At the height of the haze in 1998, the government spent RM684,000 for just four months of cloud seeding.

For an extra 15 per cent per year, they could have the blocks — with far more lasting effects than cloud seeding.

"Even if Malaysia invests just a few million it would be worth it," says Faizal, "especially in Riau’s four million hectares of peat."

Now other groups doing similar work in Indonesia have adopted the techniques developed in these projects. The Selangor Forestry Department is also developing a pilot project with GEC.

The Netherlands is paying for another 40 blocks to be put into the former Mega Rice area.

The Indonesian central government has agreed to allocate funds for rehabilitation there, using canal blocking as a core part of its work.

Asked about the usual sad story of tied hands that Malaysian politicians often tell, Faizal says:

"There’s still plenty that can be done. Malaysia has a lot to contribute. It could be equipment for village fire-fighting groups or how to manage oil palm plantations on peatland. Adopt fire-prone districts, maybe?"

Malaysian companies opening plantations in Indonesia could reach out to villagers around them and help clear land without fire.

Malaysia could invest in sustainable solutions, adds Faizal. The cost would be far less than the losses the region suffers during each haze episode.

"If we don’t solve the problem, it won’t go away."



A project that stops fires and feuds

THEY were sworn enemies, the villagers from around the Berbak National Park in Jambi and park authorities.

Trapped by sawmill owners and traders into a life of illegal logging in the park, the villagers had even threatened rangers trying to enforce the law.

From time to time, fires had broken out in logged areas near the village and the steady flow of illegal logs coming out of the park entrance meant the protected forests were next in line.

Then GEC, Wetlands International and local partners stepped in three years ago. Countless meetings and nine months later, both sides agreed to start a rather unusual project.

About 700 villagers were given small loans for projects like chili planting and chicken rearing.

Instead of paying interest, they were asked to plant trees, jointly patrol the park and rebuild park facilities destroyed during their feud with rangers.

The project saw them plant thousands of economically important trees like cocoa, rubber and ramin in a buffer area between village and park.

The park was well-patrolled and guard posts were rebuilt.

All the while, a community service officer provided technical guidance and evaluated how well the locals kept their end of the bargain. If they had done well, their loans were converted into grants.

There have been no fires or fights, since.



Now, it’s fish they are harvesting

IT was tough convincing villagers to block old logging canals they’d worked so hard to dig up but one mighty fire changed their minds.

It was during long drawn-out discussions in Sungai Puning, Central Kalimantan, that the fire broke out — choking the village and leaving behind a trail of destruction.

Reluctance gave way to concern and they began work to block canals that were draining the peat and making it fire-prone.

Meanwhile in the Merang Kepahiyang Peat Swamp Forest near the Berbak National Park, large-scale illegal logging had taken place.

Large canals had been dug for access to the forest and to carry out logs. This left the Merang river riddled with 140 drainage channels, many abandoned.

In some cases, an agreement could be reached with loggers. When this happened, villagers and project co-ordinators created blocks that kept the water high but still allowed small logs to be extracted.

This allowed loggers continued use of some canals.

"It wasn’t the ideal solution but the local government couldn’t control the illegal logging," explained Faizal Parish of Global Environment Centre.

"So this was a necessary and realistic step."

The ending was a little happier for Sungai Puning folk. The blocked-up canals turned into natural fish ponds, trapping fish that swam by when the water level in the peatland was high.

A year after building the blocks, they thanked the project proponents for persuading them to take action. They recently reported harvesting two tonnes of fish from the blocked canal.

Source: New Straits Times

Indonesia incenses region with scorched earth policy

NINIEK KARMINI

THE smouldering fields stretch as far as the eye can see, sending acrid smoke high into the air and over to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore.

The only fire crew in sight is a team of men armed with buckets of water being paid to snuff out the blazes to ready the land for its new and lucrative crop - palm oil.

The deliberately set fire is just one of hundreds blazing on Indonesia's Sumatra island and its portion of Borneo, producing smoke that is disrupting plane flights and triggering health warnings in neighbouring counties.

The dry-season haze has plagued south-east Asia every year since the 1990s, stoking regional tensions and focusing attention on cash-strapped Indonesia's inability to enforce laws banning the practice.

"We do complain," said Singapore's minister for the environment and water resources, Yaacob Ibrahim. "I think each country has the right to complain."

Indonesia, also under international pressure to deal with its spiralling bird flu death toll and Islamic extremists responsible for a host of bombings, is appealing for help.

The need for assistance was evident yesterday in Sikijang, where acres and acres of what was once forests lay smouldering, with authorities nowhere to be seen.

Five youths were busy snuffing out the blazes. Dressed in sandals, they said they were paid US$5 (£2.70) a day by the landowner to douse the embers to prepare the land for palm oil and to protect parts of the field where the crop has already been planted.

"This was set alight on purpose to plant palm oil," said one of the men, Dariyanto, his face covered by a mask to protect him from the smoke. "It is impossible for me to put it all out."

Palm oil prices have hit record highs recently. The plant has a wide range of industrial uses. Much of Indonesia's crop is exported to the booming economies of China and India.

On Friday, environmental ministers from Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore met in haze-hit Pekanbaru on Sumatra and told Jakarta it must sign a regional treaty on combating the problem before it could receive financial help. "Nothing can move forward unless Indonesia ratifies the agreement," said Malaysian environment minister Azmi Khalid.


Indonesia is the only country in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations that has yet to ratify the agreement, which would result in the establishment of a regional co-ordinating centre capable of reacting quickly to the smoke.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier in the week apologised for the haze and his spokesman said his country was prepared to sign, but did not provide a time-frame.

Indonesia says it is cracking down on those who set the fires, but police complain that prosecutions are hard to obtain. Officials have said that seasonal rains - due next month - are the only way to completely extinguish the flames. Most of the fires are on peat land, making putting them out very difficult.

The land-clearing fires resulted in south-east Asia's worst haze in 1997-98, when smoke from Sumatra blanketed much of the region.

The Source : Scotland on Sunday

Indonesian schools close, air quality plunges in Malaysia as brush fires worsen

JAKARTA, Indonesia Smoke from raging Indonesian brush fires shut schools Friday and dragged air quality to "unhealthy" levels in much of nearby Malaysia, including in its largest city Kuala Lumpur and other tourist and business centers.

Firefighters in Indonesia said they were battling the illegally set land-clearing blazes 24 hours a day, while students handed out masks to protect residents from the acrid haze that has darkened skies over 215,000 square miles (557,000 square kilometers) of land.

"The conditions here are awful, really gloomy," said Sugeng, a restaurant worker in Pontianak, a hard-hit town in Indonesia's portion of Borneo island.

Schools in the city closed on government orders, said Sugeng, who uses just one name.

Farmers or agricultural companies set the fires on Borneo and Indonesia's Sumatra island as a cheap way to clear land for plantations, mostly for palm oil, during the region's annual midyear dry season.

They are often on peat land, making them hard to extinguish.

Only three of Malaysia's 51 air quality monitoring stations reported clean air Friday. Pollution levels hit officially designated "unhealthy" levels at 15 stations, including those in the capital, Putrajaya, nearby Kuala Lumpur and the tourist city of Malacca.

Singapore's Meteorological Services Division detected nearly 200 hotspots — large, intensely hot areas indicating fires — and moderate to heavy smoke on Sumatra and parts of Borneo by late Thursday, according to satellite images on its Web site.

The worst case of smoke-induced haze in Southeast Asia occurred in 1997-98. It blanketed much of the region and was blamed for losses of nearly US$9 billion in tourism, health and business.

Indonesia's cash-strapped government defended its anti-fire efforts amid criticism from Malaysian opposition lawmakers, and from residents forced to live in the gloom for weeks at a time.

"We are doing what we can, including cloud-seeding, but the problem is there are too many hotspots," said Hoetomo, deputy minister for environmental compliance. "Indonesia is a large country and the haze just hangs in the sky. We are hoping that rain will pour heavily soon."

Source: International Herald Tribune

Indonesian smoke haze spreads to Singapore and Malaysia

A thick haze of smoke, from forest clearance fires in Indonesia, is spreading to Singapore and Malaysia.

The Singapore Environment Agency has issued a health warning advising people with heart or respiratory problems to take care.

The haze is coming from more than 1,000 on Sumatra and from the Indonesian side of Borneo, where local farmers or companies are thought to be deliberately burning down forests.

The annual burn-off causes a haze that typically smothers much of South East Asia.

The Indonesian government has outlawed land-clearing by fire but weak enforcement means the ban is largely ignored.

Source: Radio New Zealand