Marianne Kearney, Pekanbaru – Just across the Malacca Strait from Singapore, was yesterday enveloped in a blanket of haze as over 100 fires blazed for the third day this week.
Riau province in central Sumatra, which last year had one of the highest recorded number of blazing hot spots, has again become a fire centre.
The Department of Forestry in Pekanbaru said there were 299 hot spots in Sumatra as of yesterday, with almost half – or 137 – being located in Riau province.
Visibility was so poor a Garuda flight from Jakarta was forced to divert to Medan for two hours until the haze lifted over Riau's Pekanbaru city. Pilot Captain Prasatyo said it was unsafe to land as visibility was down to 387 m at 8 am; aeroplanes usually require a visibility of 2,600 m to land.
Residents said it was difficult to breathe and the Institute for Forest Protection issued hundreds of masks to schools to prevent children from developing respiratory problems. By afternoon, a thick cloud of haze still covered the city although visibility had improved.
Fires broke out two days ago when 53 hot spots were reported in Riau. A senior forestry official blamed plantation owners and landowners for the outbreak. Said Mr Aries Suwandi: "Most of the fires are started by estate crop owners. Companies are business-orientated and burning is very simple, economic and very fast."
He added that the Forestry Department was convinced it was the plantation owners who created most of Riau's hot spots as satellite maps had pinpointed the fires to areas in Indragiri Hulu, which is devoted mostly to plantations.
Despite Indonesia's new zero-burn policy, large palm-oil and timber firms continue to start fires to clear their land as there were not enough penalties, said Mr Suwandi. Last year, although hundreds of fires were detected in Riau, only three companies were prosecuted.
The Environmental Management Agency is hampered in its attempts to prosecute plantation owners as it must prove that their companies, and not errant farmers, had started the fires. But with only six helicopters to patrol the whole of Indonesia and none for Riau province, it is not surprising that few firms have been taken to court. Even if a company is found to have started a fire – which must be proven with evidence such as fuel or explosives – it may only receive a warning and not be fined.
The Department of Forestry says the forestry police have been despatched to douse the fires, but as each district of 600,000 ha has an average of only 20 officials, they can deal with only one fire at a time.