Humanitarian Crisis Looms

A humanitarian crisis looms in Indonesia as the prolonged dry spell, coupled with water-bombing aircraft getting nowhere near fires seething deep below peatlands, all but ended any hope of a real respite from the extreme levels of serious unhealthy air pollution (some call it “haze”), in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, a new palm oil producer grouping being set up by Indonesia and Malaysia would replace “no deforestation” pledges made by major palm companies in favour of a joint set of standards proposed by the two countries, an Indonesian minister said last week. Read More

Some schools told to suspend classes; plans to evacuate young kids from affected areas

Straits Times Francis Chan Indonesia Bureau Chief In Jakarta (23 October 2015)

A humanitarian crisis looms in Indonesia as the prolonged dry spell, coupled with waterbombing aircraft getting nowhere near fires seething deep below peatlands, all but ended any hope of a real respite from the haze in the weeks ahead.

Schools in parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, two of the worst-hit areas this year, were ordered to suspend classes from today. But if conditions worsen, and as a last resort, there are plans to evacuate babies and children from affected areas to ships belonging to the military or state-owned shipping firm PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan gave the bleak assessment at a briefing on the haze crisis yesterday, after a high-level meeting involving ministers and key government officials.

“This is a humanitarian effort, we are thinking about our children, we may move them to places with safer ISPU levels,” he said, referring to Indonesia’s air pollution standard index. “We cannot wait.”

A view of Muang district in the southern province of Yala, Thailand, is pictured shrouded in haze yesterday. In many parts of southern Thailand, air pollutant readings were in the unhealthy range. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and En

Hazy skies in Shah Alam, Selangor, yesterday. Elsewhere in Malaysia, schools in the northern states of Penang, Perlis and Perak were ordered to suspend classes today owing to the haze.

Mr Luhut added that a massive endeavour is needed to deal with the fires, and Indonesia has a critical five-week period ahead before the rains return. This, after the latest forecast by the country’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency showed there would be no rain until the end of next month.

National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told The Straits Times that there were more than 2,740 hot spots detected across Indonesia yesterday morning.

Thick smoke from the raging fires has spread across many parts of South-east Asia. Southern Thailand is recording its worst haze levels in a decade, prompting the Thai authorities to urge Indonesia to do more to mitigate the crisis. Similarly, Malaysia’s northern states such as Penang saw air quality hitting “very unhealthy” levels yesterday.

The forest and peatland fires, resulting from slash-and-burn methods to clear land for cultivation, have prevailed despite hundreds of sorties undertaken by waterbombers as part of a multilateral operation to put out the fires.

“Fires on peatland are very difficult to douse, plus our peatland can be as deep as 5m, 10m… It is almost impossible to douse the fire by air,” said Mr Luhut, who has been leading his country’s efforts to resolve the crisis. He called for more international assistance yesterday, specifically from Canada, which has experience in fighting peatland fires.

Indonesian Minister for Education and Culture Anies Baswedan yesterday reminded schools not to “prioritise education over health”.

This after he found out that some schools had stayed open because of the annual examinations.

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/humanitarian-crisis-looms-in-haze-hit-indonesia

New palm oil council would drop “no deforestation” pledge – Indonesia

By Augustinus Beo da Costa Reuters and Straits Times (14 October 2015):

A new palm oil producer grouping being set up by Indonesia and Malaysia would replace “no deforestation” pledges made by major palm companies in favour of a joint set of standards proposed by the two countries, an Indonesian minister said late Tuesday.

Indonesia wants big palm oil companies to row back on the historic pledges made at a climate change summit last year, arguing that they are hurting smallholder producers who cannot afford to adopt sustainable forestry practices.

Indonesia is the world’s biggest producer and exporter of palm oil producer, a key driver of economic growth, and legions of smallholders account for about 40 percent of its palm output.

“Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to harmonize and combine our two standards,” Indonesia’s chief natural resources minister Rizal Ramli told parliament.

“This is an example of how to fight for our sovereignty. We are the biggest palm oil producer. Why (should) the consumers from the developed countries set the standard for us as they want?”

Indonesia and Malaysia, which account for 85 percent of the world’s palm output, have since late August been discussing the plan to set up an intergovernmental organisation called Council of Palm Oil Producer Countries.

The move comes after major palm oil firms, including Cargill , Golden Agri-Resources and Wilmar International, signed the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP) following pressure to adopt better practices.

Indonesia, which is home to the world’s third-largest tropical forests, has been criticised by green activists and other Southeast Asian nations on forestry policy and for failing to stop the region’s annual “haze” problem from forest-burning.

Ramli said IPOP protected the interests of developed countries’ vegetable oil markets, and the new council would set a standard that would also consider the welfare of smallholders.

Top palm buyers India and China would be lobbied to accept the new standard, he said.

IPOP officials could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, a national holiday in Indonesia, but have previously said they are working with smallholder suppliers to help them meet the pledges.

The new Council would also look to promote the image of palm oil, stabilise prices, improve cooperation between top producers, and coordinate on production, stocks, biodiesel mandates and re-planting schemes, industry groups have said.

Further details are expected to be announced from late October. Previous attempts to develop better palm relations between the two countries have had limited success.

“It really depends on the will power of both governments, and I suspect they will come together more when prices are low than when prices are high,” said Ivy Ng, analyst at CIMB Investment Bank. (Additional reporting and writing by Michael Taylor; reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Editing by Richard Pullin)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/14/indonesia-palm-ipop-idUSL3N12E22820151014