Siti Nurbaya Bakar : Minister of Forestry and the Environment
Licensing is not followed by controls

A few days back, the hash-tag #melawanasap (battling the haze) was a hot topic on Twitter, posted by tens of thousands of Tweeps who vented their anger over the destructive haze caused by forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Residents in provinces there had become seriously alarmed, as the haze penetrated into everything, homes and even hospitals.

Once again, the haze was seriously affecting the air over most of Indonesia's western provinces and neighboring countries, to a dangerous level. The National Disaster Management Board (BNPB) officially declared the air quality over Riau and Sumtara to be below standard and becoming increasingly worse. The evidence was clear in the pollution levels over towns on the Andalas Island, which was classified as dangerous to human health.

September 22, 2015