Blazes on Sumatra Island were caused by a burn farming method of land clearance Kuala Lumpur – Arab Today Indonesia said yesterday it hopes to ratify a regional treaty by early next year to fight smog from forest fires that bring misery to millions, but green activists poured cold water on the deal.
“We hope we can ratify the agreement by the end of the year or early next year,” the country’s Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya told reporters.
Earlier Wednesday Kambuaya and environment ministers from four other Asian countries, which together form the Southeast Asian bloc’s “haze committee,” met to discuss ways to prevent the Indonesian forest fires.
The blazes on Sumatra Island, caused by the slash and burn farming method of land clearance for cultivation, left neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia choking on the worst haze in more than a decade in June.
The air pollution scared off tourists, forced schools to close and caused a rise in respiratory illnesses.
Indonesia is the only member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations which has still not ratified the bloc’s Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, brokered in 2002.
The treaty aims to stop cross-border smog from forest fires by requiring parties to prevent burning, monitor prevention efforts, exchange information and provide mutual help.
It also binds signatories to “respond promptly” to requests for information from countries affected by the smoke, and to take steps to implement their obligations under the treaty.
T. Jayabalan, a public health consultant and advisor to Friends of the Earth Malaysia, lauded Jakarta’s move to vow to ratify the treaty but warned that lax law enforcement would mean that the smog problem would not go away.
“It is a lukewarm measure. You can have all the regulations, but if enforcement is lax, we will continue to have haze,” he told AFP.
Source: AFP