Singapore Taking Action against Firms Behind Forest Fires

The Straits Times

22 April 2016

Singapore is taking action under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act against companies that started fires or let their concessions burn, and contributed to last year’s haze, Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli has said.

It has given notices to six of these Indonesia-based firms, asking them to explain steps they are taking to put out and prevent fires on their land. Two have replied. A director of one of the four firms that have yet to reply has also been served with a notice to give information on his firm’s move to mitigate fires on its land and prevent a repeat of last year’s haze.

… Dr Jonatan Lassa, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that while Indonesia has committed to map hot spots, it needs to build structures like incident command systems on the ground to follow up and take action where needed.

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