Adianto P. Simamora and Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – The government said here Monday that companies owning forest concession areas might be behind the prolonged forest fires in Riau province, which have prompted the temporary closure of its airport on Monday due to low visibility caused by the thick haze.
The state ministry for the environment has deployed a team to investigate the continual forest fires by tracing the owners of the land where the fires occurred.
"Witnessing such huge forest fires, I suspect it is the work of companies operating in the province. Our team is still in the field investigating," Illyas Asaad, deputy environment minister for law enforcement told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The WWF Indonesia found that hotspots in Riau province continued to increase, from 973 in January to 2,395 in July, the highest across the country. On August 1, the WWF detected a total of 97 new hotspots there.
It reported about 52 percent of the hotspots were located on land belonging to local people, 31 percent were in managed forest areas (HTI) with the remaining 17 percent being detected in plantation areas.
The ministry is using the 1999 environmental law that authorizes officials to investigate environmental violations, allowing them to seek explanations and evidence from individuals or legal bodies in connection with any environmental law violation. The results of the investigations can be submitted to the police, who can then choose to arrest or detain suspects based on the findings. Violators can face a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and a Rp 500 million fine.
Green activists have repeatedly blamed companies for deliberately setting fire to forest areas to open up tracts of land.
Greenpeace have complained about the government's slow reaction to stopping the forest fires, which hit the country annually and "export" haze to neighboring countries. "Law enforcement is too weak," Zulfahmi, Greenpeace's Southeast Asia Forest campaigner, said.
The number of forest fires is expected to rise significantly once El Nino hits the country in September.
Meanwhile, the Forestry Ministry is proposing around Rp 24 billion (US$2.42 million) in the 2010 state budget bill to the House of Representatives in anticipation of the imminent dry storms from El Nino.
Minister Malam Sambat Kaban said Monday the ministry planned to use the money from the state budget to mitigate the impact of the global phenomenon, which could prompt more hotspots than normal in Indonesian forests.
"We are anticipating [the impact of El Nino on Indonesian forests] by reserving two to four helicopters for about 300 flying hours. They will be very useful, as the storms could cover quite wide areas," Kaban told reporters.
He said the National Police had already allocated two helicopters this year to help extinguish forest fires.
He said the government also planned to conduct cloud seeding, managed by the Coordination Board for Disaster Mitigation, the budget for which would be controlled by the Office of the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare.