By Ananda Teresia
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Forest fires in some parts of Indonesia have declined and no haze had been detected moving to Malaysia, Indonesia’s environment minister said on Friday, a day after its neighbor urged Jakarta to take action as air quality worsened.
Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Malaysia’s minister of natural resources, environment and climate change, in an interview with Reuters said he had asked his Indonesian counterpart to address the haze, as air quality worsens, saying haze should not be a new normal.
“I do not know what basis that Malaysia used in giving those statements. We are working not based upon Malaysia’s request,” Siti Nurbaya, environment minister told Reuters.
Fires that sent haze billowing across the region in 2015 and 2019 burned millions of hectares of land and produced record-breaking emissions, according to scientists.
Almost every dry season, smoke from fires to clear land for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations in Indonesia blankets much of the region, bringing health risks and concerning tourist operators and airlines.
The Indonesian minister also said the number of forest fires in some parts of Sumatra and Borneo had declined and the government continues to put out the blazes.
Her remarks came as Southeast Asian agriculture and forestry ministers agreed to take collective action to minimise and eventually eliminate crop burning in the region.
In a statement after a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Malaysia, members recognised “the adverse environmental and health impacts of crop burning practices,” and committed to collectively reduce and phase it out.
(Reporting by Ananda Teresia; Editing by Martin Petty)
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