Vaudine England, Jakarta – Corruption and weak law enforcement promise to make the polluting haze caused by Indonesian forest fires a perennial problem. Farmers and contractors are burning forests to clear land for palm oil and rubber crops, and the logic of that market, in which raw commodities sell for much-desired dollars, will keep the fires burning.

Indonesia's environmental watchdog, Walhi, claims that even members of government teams dispatched to Pekanbaru, central Sumatra, to investigate the fires' causes are taking payments from the companies involved. "The [alleged] corruption is 50 million rupiah [HK$41,000] per person," said David O'Shea, a freelance documentary maker who filmed the teams at work.

The investigatory teams were supposed to collect material with which to prosecute the companies on whose land the burning was continuing. Satellite data indicate there are 91 hotspots in Riau province. Three other provinces are also affected. Singapore said last week it had detected signs of more than 200 fires on Sumatra.

Jakarta has blamed slash-and-burn land-clearing practices and banned them, but no company has been successfully prosecuted. Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid last week ordered that a taskforce be set up to deal with fires.