Indonesian President Joko Widodo, centre, accompanied by Minister for Human Development and Culture Puan Maharani, left, and Health Minister Nila Djuwita F Moeloek, right, meets with residents displaced by smoke and haze in Palembang, South Sumatra yesterday in this photo taken by Antara Foto.

Reuters
Jakarta

Indonesia is reviewing laws that allow farmers to burn up to two hectares (five acres), forestry officials said, the latest in so-far unsuccessful efforts to halt fires that have sent choking smoke across much of Southeast Asia.
Indonesia is also considering declaring a national emergency over the fires, which this week caused President Joko Widodo to cut short an official trip to the United States and pushed the country’s greenhouse gas emissions above the daily average from all economic activity in the US.
A 2009 law allows smallholder farmers to use slash-and-burn practices to clear land for agricultural purposes, and has been cited by green groups and plantation firms as a key cause of the annual fires when the burning gets out of control.
“The problem is that some people take advantage of this exception,” Indonesia’s environment and forestry minister, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, told reporters when asked about the law.
“In our last cabinet meeting, the president assigned us to review a regulation that allows land burning for two hectares.”
Revising the law may need parliamentary support which could delay changes until 2016, said Bakar, adding that the government was therefore considering an emergency regulation.
Forestry experts say the best way to clear forested areas is by tractors, chainsaws or hand tools. These methods are more expensive and time-consuming than fires.
The haze has caused pollution levels across the region to spike to unhealthy levels, and forced school closures and flight cancellations.
Warships are on standby to evacuate infants and other vulnerable residents of haze-hit areas, while other countries have been asked for help to tackle the fires.
The fires, often deliberately set by plantation companies and smallholders, have been burning for weeks in the forests and carbon-rich peat lands of Sumatra and Kalimantan islands.
“We support our government’s initiative to revise the provisional laws that allow small-holder farmers to clear up to two hectares of forested land by burning,” said Aida Greenbury, managing director of sustainability at Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). “But a multi-stakeholder initiative to support the local farmer and community must be initiated in parallel.
“The key here is to assist the farmers and the community in developing their land
responsibly without burning.”
Indonesia usually enters its wet season in October and November, and despite the El Nino dry conditions, rain has been reported in parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan this week.
RAIN BRINGS CLEAR SKIES: Three days of rain brought clearer skies in Indonesian provinces covered by smoke from forest fires, an official and residents said yesterday.
Flights resumed to and from the airport in Jambi, one of the provinces on Sumatra island badly affected by the haze, as visibility markedly improved, said Sutopo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.
Activities at the airport were ground to a halt for two months because of the smog from fires used to clear land for agriculture.
“In the coming four days rain is expected to be abundant, so we will make the best of it by artificially creating more rain,” he said.
“This is a golden moment because a dry period of about two weeks is expected after that,” he said.
Residents in areas affected by the haze welcomed the rain
with joy.
“Thank God, I can finally see the sky again,” said Irfan Ali, a resident in Pekanbaru, the
capital of Riau province.
The haze crisis has left more than 500,000 people on Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo sick, according to the disaster
management agency.  
Forests are also burning in West Papua province, on the Molucca islands and Java.
Forest fires are an annual occurrence in Indonesia but experts said this year’s blazes have been exacerbated by the prolonged drought as a result of the El Nino weather phenomenon.