Malaysia to help Indonesia curb forest fires
Pastor Dale Morgan
Malaysia to help Indonesia curb forest fires*
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, May 23 (AFP) May 23, 2008
Malaysia will help Indonesian farmers practice safer farming methods to
help curb forest fires blamed for the choking haze which shrouds the
region annually, the environment minister said Friday.
Environment Minister Douglas Unggah Embas said both countries would sign
a memorandum of understanding by June to enable Malaysian experts to
assist farmers in the fire-prone Riau region on Indonesia's Sumatra island.
"Among the programmes lined-up after the MOU is signed includes capacity
building to help them achieve their zero-burning target, rehabilitation
of burned peat land and develop an early haze warning system," he told
reporters.
Environment department director Rosnani Ibrahim said Malaysian farmers
practiced controlled burning methods which could be shared with
neighbouring Indonesia.
"We will provide training for planters and farmers, in our capacity
building programmes, on the concept of zero-burning and controlled
burning," Rosnani told reporters.
"We have very well established practices which have worked well in
Malaysia and can be successfully prescribed to Indonesian farmers," she
added.
Indonesia has said it was confident of reducing the number of illegal
fires or "hotspots" this year, as the region braces for the annual dry
season haze crisis.
Rosnani said Malaysian meteorologists last week recorded about 200 to
300 hotspots in the Riau region alone, causing skies to turn hazy in
west Malaysia.
With the La Nina weather pattern expected to ease between June and
August, the environment minister said "we have to be prepared for the
possibility of increasing hotspots."
The region experiences an annual dry period from May until early October.
"This hot and dry season is something normal. During this time, open
burning activities are expected to rise. We are taking steps to face any
possibilities," Embas said.
Indonesia has yet to ratify a regional treaty charted in 2002 on
preventing the haze although officials have said it was close to doing so.
Indonesia and the Philippines are the only members of the 10-nation
Southeast Asian bloc which have not ratified the deal, which would
compel Indonesia to create a strict zero-burning policy.