[Kabar-indonesia] 8 Haze Reports: Indonesia to Sign ASEAN Treaty [+Emergency Meeting]

[Joyo at aol.com]

8 Reports:

- Under fire, Indonesia says to sign
  SE Asia haze pact
- FT: Indonesia to sign anti-haze
  agreement
- Indonesia's April Says Not Burning 
  Trees To Clear Land
- ASEAN environment ministers to 
  meet in haze-hit Indonesia
- Brush Fires Cast Pall Over Indonesia;
  Emergency Mtg Fri
- Report: Malaysia proposes regional 
  fund to combat haze
- Malaysia says it is "picked on" over
  haze
- Indonesia prepares 100 bln rupiah 
  to fight forest fires

Under fire, Indonesia says to sign SE Asia haze pact

By Muklis Ali

JAKARTA, October 12 (Reuters) - Indonesia will ratify a Southeast
Asian agreement that calls for regional cooperation to deal with
forest fires blanketing the region with choking smog, a presidential
spokesman said on Thursday.

The pledge came a day before environment ministers from five Southeast
Asian nations are due to meet in Pekanbaru on Indonesia's Sumatra
island to discuss ways to tackle the problem.

Jakarta has been criticised by its neighbours for failing to tackle
the annual dry season blazes, which in past weeks have caused serious
air pollution across the region, particularly Malaysia and Singapore.

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.

"Indonesia will ratify it and at the same time adopt a comprehensive
solution to the haze problem," said Dino Patti Djalal, a spokesman for
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Fires caused by farmers and big businesses such as plantations have
been burning for weeks in parts of Indonesia, creating a choking haze
that has made many people ill, shut some airports and threatened
wildlife in protected forests.

Djalal said Yudhoyono had telephoned Singapore Prime Minister Lee
Hsien Loong to discuss the forest fires and explain to Lee the
problems Jakarta faced in trying to extinguish the blazes.

"The president stressed the need for a comprehensive long-term
solution. The president also pins high hopes on the environment
ministers' meeting on Friday," he said.

FUND TO FIGHT HAZE

The meeting in Pekanbaru, itself regularly affected by the haze, is
expected to be attended by ministers from Indonesia, Thailand,
Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.

Yudhoyono on Wednesday apologised to neighbouring countries.

Most of the blazes are in southern Sumatra, just across the Malacca
Strait from Malaysia and Singapore, as well as in Indonesia's part of
Borneo island.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia would use all resources available to put out
the fires, including enlisting soldiers and police and leasing two
Russian cargo aircraft that could each carry 40 tonnes of water to
douse fires.

Malaysia would ask at the meeting of environment ministers for a
special fund to be set up to tackle the haze, state news agency
Bernama reported.

"The important thing is for these countries which are receiving the
impact of the haze to agree to collaborate and take positive and
effective action to ensure that it does not recur," Deputy Prime
Minister Najib Razak was quoted telling reporters at a Malaysian Armed
Forces function.

Environment Minister Azmi Khalid said countries affected by the haze
or causing the haze should contribute to the fund, Bernama said.

With few signs authorities have a grip on the situation, residents
have been forced to pray for rain.

Severe fires and smog during a drought in 1997-98 made many people ill
across a wide area of Southeast Asia and cost local economies billions
of dollars and badly hit the tourism and airline sectors. The this
year's haze has rekindled fears over the economic and health impacts
to local economies.

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

(Additional reporting by Clarence Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur)

------------------------------------

Financial Times (UK)
October 12, 2006

Indonesia to sign anti-haze agreement

By John Burton in Singapore

Indonesia said it would ratify a regional anti-haze pollution
agreement as south-east Asian nations prepare to hold an 
emergency meeting on the issue Friday.

The haze problem, caused mainly by farmers and plantation companies in
Indonesia setting fires to clear forest land, has been the worst for
several years recently as acrid smoke has covered Singapore and parts
of Malaysia.

The emergency meeting, called by Singapore but held in Indonesia, will
include the environment ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
Thailand and Brunei. They represent half the members of the
Association of South-East Asian Nations, which signed a treaty in 2002
to control the spread of haze.

Indonesia has been pressed by Malaysia and Singapore to ratify the
agreement, which has been approved by the nine other Asean members.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, has apologised for
the haze problem to neighbouring countries in response to complaints.

The agreement would set up a regional coordinating centre to help
mobilise resources to fight the fires, which can smoulder for weeks or
months if they set ablaze combustible peatland.

Indonesian officials say the haze problem will not be controlled until
seasonal rains arrive this month, in spite of efforts by firefighters.

Malaysia is expected to propose at the meeting to establish a joint
fund to help provide Indonesia with money for new equipment and
technology to fight the fires, which are normally concentrated on the
islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

There are proposals that Indonesia should require plantation companies
to maintain full-scale firefighting units to prevent blazes from
getting out of control.

"We know the source (of the haze) but pointing fingers will not go any
good," said Najib Razak, the Malaysian deputy prime minister.

"The important thing is for these countries which are receiving the
impact of the haze to agree to collaborate and take positive and
effective action to ensure that it does not recur."

Malaysian officials have expressed concern that a continuation of the
haze problem could hurt tourism, one of the country's main industries.

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Indonesia's April Says Not Burning Trees To Clear Land

JAKARTA, October 12 (Dow Jones)--Indonesia's Asia Pacific Resources
International Holdings Ltd., or April, one of the region's largest
paper and pulp producers, Thursday said it hasn't been burning trees
to clear its plantation land.

The company said the areas of burning vegetation, or "hot spots",
detected at its plantations haven't been caused by industrial
land-clearing, but by arson conducted by illegal loggers,
land-clearing by villagers, unattended cooking fires or improperly
extinguished cigarettes.

"April does not use fire to clear land, as (such a strategy) makes no
business or environmental sense," the company said in a statement.

In recent weeks, forest fires in Indonesia have caused haze to spread
across the country and over neighboring Malaysia, Brunei and
Singapore, causing air quality to plunge to unhealthy levels. Parts of
southern Thailand have also been affected.

The fires on Sumatra island and the Indonesian side of Borneo are
mostly set by farmers or companies seeking a cheap way to clear land
for plantations.

"While certain interest groups choose to use satellite images of hot
spots to advance their own agenda, April uses the technology to locate
fires around our area and send out our firefighting teams," April's
statement said.

April released the statement in response to allegations of
environmental misconduct by local non-governmental organizations, a
firefighting official at the company said.

"The accusations are not new...they continue every time there is a
smoke and haze problem," the official told Dow Jones Newswires.

A hot spot is "a pixel in a satellite image that contains the spectral
signature of burning vegetation. The fire within the hot spot may
cover the entire area, or it may be as small as 0.001 square
kilometer," April's statement said.

April operates a pulp mill with annual production capacity of 2
million tons in Kerinci on the island of Sumatra.

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ASEAN environment ministers to meet in haze-hit Indonesia

JAKARTA, October 12 (AFP) -- Environment ministers from Southeast
Asian nations afflicted by an acrid haze from land-clearing fires are
to meet this week in Indonesia, the president's spokesman said
Thursday.

Malaysia and Singapore have been angered by the haze from fires raging
in Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia, which every year drift over
parts of the region, causing health problems and disrupting travel and
tourism.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who apologised Thursday
to the two nations over the crisis, telephoned Singapore's prime
minister to tell him the meeting was set for Friday in Pekanbaru, his
spokesman said.

The city is the capital of Riau province on Sumatra island, near
Singapore, and has been badly affected by this year's smoke.

Environment ministers from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and
Thailand are to attend, a statement from the foreign affairs ministry
said.

"The president puts high hopes on the results of the ASEAN ministerial
meeting," Yudhoyono's spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said, referring to
the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

He said the president and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who wrote to
Yudhoyono Wednesday complaining of the haze, had discussed "ways to
handle it".

"The president, once again, apologised for the inconvenience felt by
Singapore and our neighbour Malaysia," Djalal said.

The president also told Lee that Indonesia would ratify an ASEAN
treaty on transboundary haze it signed in 2002, although he did not
say when.

"Indonesia will ratify this agreement and at the same time implement a
comprehensive long-term solution," Djalal told reporters.

Indonesia is already a signatory to the agreement, under which parties
are obligated to act to prevent and control burning that may cause
pollution in neighbouring countries.

Singapore's foreign affairs ministry said in a statement that
Yudhoyono had told Lee that "Indonesia was determined to take
effective measures to prevent the forest fires in future."

Farmers continue to light fires every year to clear land ahead of the
rainy season, even though the practice has been outlawed. Indonesian
authorities' enforcement of the law remains weak.

Singapore's environment agency was forced to issue a health advisory
because of the fog-like haze last weekend, while this week Malaysia
issued a hazard warning for ships in the Malacca Strait after
visibility dropped dangerously along the vital waterway.

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Brush Fires Cast Pall Over Indonesia; Emergency Mtg Fri

JAKARTA, October 12 (AP)--Hundreds of brush fires raged across a large
swath of Indonesia Thursday, sending acrid smoke and haze over
Singapore and Malaysia, and forcing flight cancellations and a rare
apology from the Indonesian president.

Indonesia was preparing to host an emergency meeting of environment
ministers from five Southeast Asian nations to discuss how to tackle
the illegally set blazes, which have plagued the region during its dry
season since the 1990s.

The meeting is taking place Friday in Pekanbaru in Riau province, one
of the worst-hit regions. Singapore had said it was hosting the talks,
but Jakarta insisted they take place in Indonesia because it had the
largest stake in the problem.

"On behalf of the government it is in my place to apologize even if it
was not deliberate," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters
late Wednesday, adding that the country would welcome international
assistance in fighting the blazes.

The fires on Sumatra island and the Indonesian side of Borneo are
mostly set by farmers or companies seeking a cheap way to clear land
for plantations. Often on peat land, they smolder for weeks or months.

Across large parts of both regions Thursday, motorists were forced to
turn on their headlights in the day, and all flights from and to at
least one airport on Borneo were canceled until Saturday due to poor
visibility, a local aviation official said.

Teams of firefighters are trying to extinguish the blazes and police
have arrested scores of landowners in recent weeks. However, officials
have said that seasonal rains - forecast to fall in the next few weeks
- are the only way to snuff all the fires out.

Singapore's skies remained noticeably hazy Thursday, though slightly
less so than over the weekend, when the city-state recorded its worst
air quality reading this year.

Malaysia, large parts of which have been shrouded in smoke in recent
weeks, recorded cleaner skies but air quality was still only moderate
in most regions and unhealthy in one, the government's Meteorological
Department said.

Land-clearing fires during the annual dry season resulted in Southeast
Asia's worst haze in 1997-98, when smoke from Sumatra blanketed much
of the region and was blamed for losses of nearly $9 billion in
tourism, health costs and business.

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Report: Malaysia proposes regional fund to combat haze

KUALA LUMPUR, October 12 (AP) - Malaysia will ask haze-hit Southeast
Asian countries to set up a joint fund to help Indonesia curb stubborn
brush fires blamed for the choking air pollution, a news report said
Thursday.

The fund could be used for new equipment and technology, Deputy Prime
Minister Najib Razak was quoted as saying by the national Bernama news
agency.

"We know the source (of the haze) but pointing fingers will not go any
good," he was quoted as saying. "The important thing is for these
countries which are receiving the impact of the haze to agree to
collaborate and take positive and effective action to ensure that it
does not recur."

The Cabinet endorsed the proposal at its meeting Wednesday, amid
concerns that the current dry season could be prolonged by the el Nino
climatic effect, Najib said in the report.

No other details on the proposed fund were available. Najib and his
aides could not be reached for further comment.

Malaysia's proposal came as five Southeast Asian environment ministers
were set to hold an emergency conference in Indonesia on Friday to
discuss tackling the blazes.

Farmers and plantation companies set the fires during each year's dry
season as a cheap but illegal way to clear land.

The blazes resulted in Southeast Asia's worst haze in 1997-98, when
smoke from Indonesia's Sumatra province blanketed much of the region
and was blamed for losses of nearly US$9 billion in tourism, health
and business costs.

In most of peninsular Malaysia, where air quality plunged to unhealthy
levels last week, "the haze situation will gradually improve due to
more rain expected in the next few days," the Meteorological
Department said in a statement late Wednesday.

The Department of Environment reported that only one of its 51 air
quality monitoring stations recorded unhealthy air pollution levels
early Thursday, down from 14 on Monday.

Fifteen places recorded good air quality, while most of the others --
including Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city, and the
administrative capital, Putrajaya -- had pollution levels officially
rated as "moderate."

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Malaysia says it is "picked on" over haze

KUALA LUMPUR, October 12 (AFP) -- Malaysia's tourism minister said
Thursday the country was being "picked on" over the haze crisis, with
more than its fair share of bad publicity deterring tourists from
visiting.

"It is the foreign press who are constantly rubbishing Malaysia.
Singapore, Brunei and some other countries in the region are also
affected by haze but they keep picking on Malaysia," Tengku Adnan
Tengku Mansor told reporters.

"It is not good for tourist arrivals at all," he added.

The minister also singled out the foreign governments who had issued
warnings about the choking haze caused by Indonesian forest fires
which have blanketed parts of the region, sending air quality to
unhealthy levels.

"Australia had issued some travel advisory and then some European
countries as well saying avoid our country," Tengku Adnan said.

"But we are saying why only Malaysia? ... even landing in Singapore is
a problem now. They have got to sympathize with us," he added.

Tourism is one of the major growth sectors in Malaysia with a total of
16.4 million tourists entering the country in 2005 and a target of
20.1 million visitors for 2007.

Indonesia Wednesday apologized to Singapore and Malaysia for the haze
over both countries and agreed to convene a meeting of regional
environment ministers to tackle the problem.

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Indonesia prepares 100 bln rupiah to fight forest fires

JAKARTA, October 12 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has prepared
a fund of 100 billion rupiah (10.9 million U.S. dollars) to finance
efforts to fight forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan islands that
sent thick haze to neighboring countries, an official said Thursday.

The fund will be disbursed from the disaster emergency response of the
2006 state budget, said Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare
Aburizal Bakrie.

"I have consulted with the House of Representatives over the issue and
the government will soon request the disbursement of the fund from the
2006 state budget," he told reporters after meeting President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono at the state palace here.

Much of the fund will be used to rent helicopters and aircraft that
will carry tons of water to extinguish fires in the affected areas, he
said.

The government also considers inducing artificial rains starting
Saturday, he said.

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Indonesia Rents Russian Aircraft to Extinguish Fire
Thursday, 12 October, 2006 | 18:50 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Indonesian government will rent two
Ilyushin aircraft from Russia to extinguish forest fires.

"The aircrafts can drop water on hot spots," said President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday (11/10).

He went on to say these Ilyushin aircraft are only used to put out large 
fires.

Small hot spots will be extinguished with existing equipment.

The rented aircrafts will bring loads of 40 tons of water each to be
dropped at the hot spots.

According to the president, the government's measures also include
intensifying the fire extinguishing operation by land and air.

The National Coordinating Board for Disaster and Refugee Relief, he
said, leads the operation.

Yudhoyono said that law enforcement is still being applied to
plantation companies that clear land by burning the forests.

In addition to plantations, local people are involved in clearing land
by starting fires.

The president apologized to neighboring countries for the loss
suffered due to the smoke from Indonesia.

"On behalf of Indonesia, I apologize to neighboring countries," he said.

The government will explain about the smoke problem at the environment
ministerial level meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) in Pekanbaru on October 13.

The meeting will be attended by five ASEAN members including Malaysia,
Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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