Indonesia closes 9 national parks temporarily following forest fires; prioritises firefighting in 6 provinces

Indonesia closes 9 national parks temporarily following forest fires; prioritises firefighting in 6 provinces Indonesia is battling fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, with some areas in Borneo remaining blanketed by “hazardous” levels of haze. JAKARTA: Forest fires in some of Indonesia’s national parks, and the risk of more taking place, have prompted the authorities to temporarily close nine of them as it prioritises firefighting operations in six provinces. Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said on Monday (Aug 31) that outbreaks of fire in these national parks have added significant strain to ongoing containment efforts in the provinces of Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan. The nine parks temporarily closed to hikers are Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (East Java), Kerinci Seblat National Park (Sumatra), Mount Ciremai National Park (West Java), Tambora National Park (West Nusa Tenggara), Manusela National Park (Maluku), Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (West and Central Kalimantan), Mount Gede Pangrango National Park (West Java), Mount Leuser National Park (northern Sumatra), and certain routes in Lorentz National Park (Papua). Limited hiking in designated safe zones has also been imposed in Mount Rinjani National Park (Lombok), Mount Merbabu National Park (Central Java), Hyang Highlands Wildlife Reserve (East Java), and Mount Halimun Salak National Park (West Java). Raja Juli said the preventive safety measures ensure firefighting resources remain focused on priority areas, following fires in several national parks that required additional firefighting support. “Some water-bombing helicopters that should have been prioritised for the six provinces experiencing forest and land fires have also had to be deployed to national parks to conduct firefighting (operations),” Raja Juli was quoted as saying by national news agency Antara. The minister cited an incident last week where some 170 hikers stranded in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park due to forest fires were rescued. Earlier in August, a fire burned for nearly a week at the same national park, razing around 550 hectares of land, BBC reported. He did not say when the closures would last until. Indonesia is battling fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, where “widespread hotspots” were reported by the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre on Tuesday. “Moderate to dense transboundary smoke plumes were observed to cover the North, West and Central Kalimantan, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and parts of Palawan and Panay, the Philippines,” the centre said on its website at about 11am. On Tuesday, Pontianak in West Kalimantan was the most polluted city in Indonesia, with an air quality index (AQI) of 851 as at 11am, according to readings from IQAir, a Swiss platform that monitors air quality data. Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan was the second-most polluted city with an AQI reading of 675. An AQI reading of above 300 is considered hazardous. In Malaysia, six areas in Sarawak recorded “hazardous” air quality on Tuesday, with Serian district registering the highest Air Pollutant Index (API) level of 408 and Kuching following closely with 407, Bernama news agency reported. API levels above 300 are considered hazardous. Last week, Indonesia Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said more than 5 million people on Borneo and Sumatra islands were directly exposed to the risks of a putrid haze coming off dozens of fires across the vast archipelago. He said some 13,500 people were treated for respiratory infections in July and August.