Elusive Indonesian stamp on haze pollution agreement a priority in KL meeting
Elusive Indonesian stamp on haze pollution agreement a priority in KL meeting
13 July 2013
published by www.themalaysianinsider.com
Malaysia / Indonesia — Malaysia wants Indonesia to urgently ratify the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution during the 15th Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) to be held in Kuala Lumpur next Wednesday.
It also wishes MSC member countries would put greater emphasis on the long-term solutions in preventing haze occurrence in the sub-region, such as through integrated peat land management, a statement from the natural resources and environment ministry said.
The meeting, to be attended by environment ministers from Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, is particularly important, in view of the recent haze episode affecting the region.
“The MSC forum shall take stock of what has been achieved, and what the immediate needs are,” said the statement.
MSC’s objective is to oversee the implementation of enhanced measures to prevent the recurrence of the smoke haze from land and forest fires in fire-prone provinces in Indonesia, as underlined in Indonesia’s Plan of Action (POA) to deal with land and forest fires, and haze.
Among the successful implementation of MSC since its formation in 2006, was the operationalisation of Indonesia’s POA to reduce the number of hotspots in fire-prone districts in Sumatra and Kalimantan provinces, and bilateral collaboration on preventing land and forest fires.
