Reflection: It's not the mismanagement of land in Indonesia! But it's proper
preparation for the sake of camel and donkey industries which are going to be
export income sources in order to payback the foreign debts.
ttp://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/20096134716151939.html
Saturday, June 13, 2009
09:43 Mecca time, 06:43 GMT
Haze over Malaysia 'set to stay'
The environment ministry said it was working with police and
private plane firms to detect blazes [AFP]
People living in Malaysia and other parts of south-east Asia have been
warned that a thick haze filling their skies could last until the end of August.
The pollution is being blamed on smoke from forest fires on Indonesia's
Sumatra island and, without rain, the number of fires is rising, officials have
said.
Blucer Dolok Saribu, head of a meteorology, climatology and geophysics
agency in Indonesia, said: "There is a potential for the number of fire spots
to rise and haze conditions to worsen if there is no rain."
The fires happen every year in the dry season, but have worsened in the
past decade with timber and plantation firms often being blamed for starting
fires to clear land.
Mismanagement of land
One environment campaigner told Al Jazeera on Saturday that "serious
action" needs to be taken before billions of dollars worth of damage is caused.
Faizal Parish, director of the Malaysia-based Global Environment Centre,
said: "We have a phenomenon called the El Nino effect which occurs roughly
every seven years.
"This leads to very long droughts that can last up to six or even nine
months. [However] El Nino just gives the dry conditions. The root causes of the
fires are 100 per cent due to human activity - mismanagement of land."
Parish said fire prevention efforts need to be tripled.
"If we do not take serious action now, we will be in a situation like in
1997-98 when we had massive clouds of smoke that caused an estimated $10bn
worth of damage.
"Although times may be hard, there needs to be rapid investment to
prevent fires through better management.
"Particularly in peat areas which can burn for up to six months, where 90
per cent of the smoke haze is coming from," he said.
Abnormal temperatures
An Indonesian official said 47 hotspots had been recorded in Riau
province in Sumatra by Thursday and temperatures were abnormally high at 35C.
In Malaysia, the haze had reduced visibility to in some areas surrounding
Kuala Lumpur, the capital.
"We are monitoring the situation. We will decide later if any action
should be taken," Rosnani Ibrahim, the department of the environment's
director-general, said.
The ministry said it was working with police and private airlines to
detect blazes through aerial surveillance.
Indonesia said it lacks the money and technical expertise to control the
fires in the vast archipelago nation.
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