JAKARTA, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Efforts to reduce the wildfires ablaze across Indonesia will be challenging as the El Niño weather phenomenon will peak this month, Raja Juli Antoni, the country’s forestry minister, said on Tuesday, adding that the devastation was largely man-made.
Here are the details:
• For weeks Indonesia has intensified efforts to contain haze from forest and land fires across six provinces in Borneo and Sumatra islands after smoke triggered respiratory illnesses and forced thousands of schools to move classes online, including in neighbouring Malaysia.
• The “super-El Niño” weather conditions exacerbate the fires, causing drought.
• Hot spots have been reduced across Kalimantan and Sumatra by the end of August, Raja Juli said.
• “Our problems are not over. September is the peak of El Niño,” he said. “September is the main fight for us.”
• Wildfires burned about 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) of land from January to July, ministry data showed, increasing from 107,465 burned hectares from January to June.
• Raja Juli said the fires were largely deliberately set, either by individuals or corporations.
• The ministry has given fines to six forestry permit holders for their alleged roles, adding a criminal probe was possible.
• Satellite imaging has revealed that a total of 42 companies hold concessions with high wildfire potential, Rizal Irawan, a senior official at the country’s Environment Ministry, said on Monday.
• Authorities have modified the weather to trigger rain and “water bombed” areas to contain the hot spots and mitigate the fires, Raja Juli said.
• The Philippines’ environmental bureau said haze blanketed Manila on Tuesday, pushing air quality to “very unhealthy” and “acutely unhealthy” levels in some areas.
• The air quality in six areas in Malaysia’s state of Sarawak reached hazardous levels on Tuesday, data from Malaysia’s environmental department showed.
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Additional reporting by Ashley Tang in Kuala Lumpur; Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
