Indonesia launches biggest ever forest fire mission

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the agreement was reached through the “Conference of the Parties to the AATHP” and “Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution” meetings held periodically.

“We hoped the emergency assistance can be utilized by the Indonesian government”. The blazes are spread across “huge areas” of Indonesia, he said. But the haze could still linger – experts said previously it could last till November – due to factors like the location and extent of fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, direction of the prevailing winds and frequency of rain.

Wan Junaidi said his ministry was also now collaborating with the Attorney-General’s Chambers in looking at the legal aspects in establishing the special court.

The fires have been particularly hard to extinguish this year because of unusually dry conditions caused by the El Nino climate phenomenon.

For weeks, fires illegally started to clear land for plantations have shrouded Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia in acrid smog, worsening air quality, closing schools and forcing the cancellation of outdoor events.

Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the air teams would conduct water bombing and weather modification efforts across six of the worst-hit provinces in Sumatra and the Indonesian portion of Borneo island.

Experts say the forest fires in Indonesia, which have caused choking smoke to drift across South-East Asia, are spreading to new areas and are unlikely to be put out until next year, Reuters reported yesterday.

“The actual number is higher as the satellite is not able to penetrate the thickness of the haze in Sumatra and (Borneo)”, he added.

Malaysia enjoyed a brief spell of lowered haze last week, but the government – which has repeatedly ordered school closures across wide areas as a health precaution – did so again on Monday as skies once again reverted to the now-familiar soupy gray.

It encompasses five thrusts namely cooperation in developing preliminary measures in monitoring the smoke, preventing land and forest fires, implementing joint reciprocal procedures on pollution, setting up an Asean smoke fund and implementing scientific research cooperation on the problems of transborder smoke.