Indonesia’s forestry ministry processes 42 forest fire cases, sanctions six companies
The country’s meteorology agency detected 4,508 hotspots on Wednesday morning (Aug 26), with nearly eight in 10 in Kalimantan. President Prabowo Subianto has instructed officials to do more in preventing forest and land fires.
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JAKARTA: Forty-two cases of forest and land fires in Indonesia are undergoing legal proceedings at its forestry ministry, as the government steps up efforts to tackle the haze and enforce the law.
The ministry’s Directorate General of Law Enforcement (Gakkum) is handling the cases, Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said on Tuesday (Aug 25).
Raja Juli did not provide details on the parties facing legal proceedings or the locations of the fires linked to the cases, but said the government would take action regardless of who was responsible for the violations.
The cases appear to be in addition to the 72 suspects arrested by Indonesian police on Sunday in connection with 89 forest and land fire cases across five provinces in Kalimantan and four on Sumatra. There are no details if the cases overlap.
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Fires, driven by an intensifying El Nino pattern and a prolonged dry season, have given rise to haze in the central and western parts of Indonesia, as well as in Malaysia.
According to Raja Juli, enforcement action is not limited to criminal proceedings. The Forestry Ministry may also impose administrative sanctions.
On Monday (Aug 24), the ministry announced administrative sanctions against six Forest Utilisation Business Licence (PBPH) concession holders after finding fires covering a total of 1,511.55 hectares in the areas they manage in West, Central and East Kalimantan.
The six companies were only identified by their initials by the authorities: PT WEL, PT FI, PT MPK and PT WSP in West Kalimantan, PT NES in Central Kalimantan, and PT PSR in East Kalimantan.
The ministry found that they had failed to adequately prevent and control forest and land fires in their concession areas.
Five companies were ordered to take corrective measures, while PT MPK’s business licence was suspended because of extensive and repeated fires in its concession area.
Under the sanctions, the companies are required to improve their fire preparedness, including firefighting teams and equipment, water sources, observation towers, canal blocks, as well as early detection and response systems.
They are also required to restore vegetation in affected areas. For peatlands – wetlands consisting of partially decayed organic matter that release large amounts of carbon when burnt – they are to restore hydrological functions through water management, canal blocking, rewetting and groundwater-level monitoring.
HOTSPOTS RISE
On Wednesday (Aug 26), Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded a slight increase in hotspots in Kalimantan compared to a day earlier.
Satellite monitoring between midnight and 10am local time detected 3,533 hotspots in Kalimantan, 142 more than the 3,391 reported on Tuesday.
Kalimantan accounted for nearly eight in 10 – or about 78 per cent – of the 4,508 hotspots detected across Indonesia during the monitoring period.
Outside Kalimantan, BMKG detected 687 hotspots in Sumatra, 194 in Sulawesi, 85 in Java, 57 in Papua and Maluku, and 33 in the Nusa Tenggara islands.
BMKG said atmospheric conditions would remain relatively dry over the coming week due to a very strong El Nino and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).
Low rainfall is expected in much of Kalimantan from late August to mid-September, conditions that BMKG said would increase vulnerability to drought and forest and land fires.
Haze from the fires has also disrupted schooling in several areas.
In Berau, East Kalimantan, students were told to study from home from Aug 24 to 26 after air quality deteriorated. Distance learning was also introduced in several parts of West Kalimantan this week due to worsening air quality.
In Sumatra’s Jambi province, face-to-face classes from preschool to senior high school were temporarily suspended from Monday. In Rokan Hulu in Riau province, classes were shifted online from Aug 26 to 28.
PRABOWO LAYS OUT MEASURES TO TACKLE “DANGEROUS DISASTER”
President Prabowo Subianto on Monday (Aug 24) instructed officials to strengthen measures to prevent forest and land fires, including by responding swiftly to every hotspot identified before it develops into a larger fire.
At a meeting on forest and land fire mitigation in Palembang, South Sumatra, Prabowo said the central government was also preparing about 1,000 military and police officers to assist local officials in public outreach and education.
Prabowo said forest and land fires were a national concern because of their impact on the public, including respiratory problems caused by haze.
“This is a very dangerous disaster,” Prabowo said.
As for longer-term preventive measures, Prabowo called for more bore wells, reservoirs and canals in productive peatland areas. He said groundwater in peatland was relatively easy to access through drilling and could be used to support fire prevention efforts.
Prabowo also asked the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) to study how reservoirs and canals in peatland areas could be used for productive activities, including fish farming, so that infrastructure built to control forest fires could also provide economic benefits.
He said the government would continue monitoring forest and land fires in South Sumatra and would also look into the haze problem.
Source: Agencies/da(cc)
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