Muaro Jambi, one of Jambi's nine regencies, is eight times Singapore's size and is home to 400,000 people.

Fires set off to clear land at the start of the farmers' planting season in Jambi, as well as in Riau and South Sumatra provinces, have been the source of the smoky haze that blankets Singapore and South-east Asia during the mid-year dry season. Singapore escaped the haze this year, largely because winds blew the smoky pall elsewhere. Rains also helped.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim, pledging that Singapore would follow through on the masterplan, said other provinces could model masterplans along the lines of this one.

Singapore will commit $1 million towards the first programmes under the masterplan: Half the money will go into developing the fire-danger rating stations, which will warn of possible fire risks; and the remaining half will be spent on training and consultancy programmes.

More funds may be sought from the international community as well, said Dr Yaacob.

Mr Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia's State Minister for Environment, referring to last month's wildfires in California, noted that blazes were tough even for the 'strongest nation on earth', the United States, to handle. He noted that while Singapore escaped the haze as a result of Indonesia's halving the number of hot spots, and the weather, this positive situation was 'not stable'.

Jambi's vice-governor Antony Zeidra Abidin said solving the problem also required creating alternative sources of income - in aquaculture and tourism, for example - for the farmers if slash-and-burn cultivation is outlawed.

Remarking that the problem had no quick solutions, Dr Yaacob said a decade or two was a 'realistic' time frame: 'You cannot solve this overnight. You're asking an entire community to change their lifestyle...But I think it's a start.'

arti@sph.com.sg