Indonesia Must Keep Its Guard Up Against Wildfires Despite Fewer Hotspots, Green Groups Warn as Peat Fires Smoulder
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government must keep its guard up against wildfires despite a recent decline in the number of hotspots, environmental groups said on Monday, October 5, warning that peatland fires remain prone to flare up amid persistently hot and dry weather. Indonesia has been battling its most intense wildfires in 11 years, with a 'super El Niño' driving up temperatures. Fire and haze have caused a spike in respiratory illnesses at home and shrouded neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore in hazardous smog.
Though the Forestry Ministry said the number of hotspots had nearly halved from Friday to Saturday, there was still high potential for peatland fires, said Putra Saptian, a campaigner with the peatland protection group Pantau Gambut. 'A reduction in hotspots should not be cited by the government as a key indicator of success, given that the characteristics of peatland fires differ from those of fires on mineral soil,' he told a press conference. Peat fires spread through underground organic material, creating persistent smouldering and the potential to re-emerge. The group warned that of Indonesia's 24 million hectares of peatland, 16 million hectares have been made more fire-prone by ecosystem damage, including extensive deforestation and depleted water tables, and that only 3 percent of peatland damaged by fires in 2015–2019 has been restored into forest.
In Palembang, capital of South Sumatra, thick haze from peat fires was turning the sky yellow, with air pollution at 'a very terrifying' level, said Kartika Lestari, an environmental campaigner based in the city. 'Dust is clinging to our clothes: imagine what that would do to our lungs,' she told the same briefing. The air pollution index in Palembang exceeded 1,000 on Monday; a reading above 300 is categorised as 'hazardous'. At the briefing, Greenpeace called on the government to go after companies linked to the fires, including Malaysia-based firms operating in Indonesia. Malaysia's Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Arthur Joseph Kurup warned at a separate briefing that 'the worst is yet to come', with hot and dry conditions set to persist into the new year.
The Forestry Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that it remained on high alert and would maintain efforts to contain fires, especially peat fires. President Prabowo Subianto launched a new peatland and mangrove restoration agency last month. With the dry season far from over, restoring peat water tables and enforcing the law against those who set fires remain the hard tasks facing Jakarta.
(Source: Compiled from Reuters reporting on)
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 苏门答腊上空的烟霾与火点卫星图，公共领域（Wikimedia Commons）
