Indonesia says forest fires have declined, no transboundary haze to Malaysia
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Almost every dry season, smoke from fires to clear land in Indonesia blankets much of the region.
PHOTO: AFP
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JAKARTA – Forest fires in some parts of Indonesia have declined, and no haze has been detected moving to Malaysia, Indonesia’s Environment Minister said on Friday, a day after its neighbour urged Jakarta to take action as air quality worsened.
Malaysia’s Minister for Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change, Mr Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, in an interview with Reuters said he had asked his Indonesian counterpart to address the haze, as air quality worsened, saying haze should not be a new normal.
“I do not know what basis that Malaysia used in giving those statements. We are working not based upon Malaysia’s request,” Indonesia’s Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya told Reuters.
Fires that sent haze billowing across the region in 2015 and 2019 burned millions of hectares of land and produced record-breaking emissions, according to scientists.
Almost every dry season, smoke from fires to clear land for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations in Indonesia blankets much of the region, bringing health risks and negatively impacting tourist operators and airlines.
The Indonesian minister also said the number of forest fires in some parts of Sumatra and Borneo had declined, and the government continues to put out the blazes.
Her remarks came as South-east Asian agriculture and forestry ministers agreed to take collective action to minimise and eventually eliminate crop burning in the region.
In a statement after a meeting of Asean in Malaysia, members of the grouping recognised “the adverse environmental and health impacts of crop burning practices”, and committed to collectively reduce and phase it out. REUTERS
