KUALA LUMPUR – Indonesia has doubled down on its assertions that none of its smoke haze arising from forest and land fires has reached its neighbouring countries.
“There was no smoke reaching neighbouring countries as stated by several parties or as happened every year in the past. There is no more smoke,” Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD was quoted as saying during a press conference in Jakarta today.
He added that the El Nino phenomenon has resulted in an increase in hotspots compared to previous years, but the number of forest and land fires was lower than last year.
“Compared to El Nino in 2019, forest and land fire cases this year are smaller and under control. We will continue to monitor increasing hotspots, although hotspots do not always become fire spots.”
He added that there is a joint effort by the national police, related government agencies, non-governmental organisations and the private sector to monitor hotspots.
Earlier, it was reported that Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that it received an offer from Malaysia to help manage forest and land fires.
Last week, Malaysia’s Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said Malaysia sent a letter concerning cooperation under the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.
Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar had refuted accusations regarding smoke from forest and land fires in Indonesia crossing into Malaysia.
She had said the haze distribution imagery from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency and the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) from September 28 to 30 found no evidence of transboundary haze from Indonesia crossing into Malaysia.
ASMC is a regional collaborative programme among the National Meteorological Services of Asean member countries. ASMC operates under the Singapore Meteorological Service.
The Indonesian environment ministry has revealed that 203 companies have received warnings and 20 companies have been sealed due to their involvement in the fires, including subsidiaries of Malaysian companies. – October 9, 2023