Parliament To Review Permit To Use Fires To Clear Forest Land

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Parliament (DPR) said it will review license granted in a number of regions to use fires to clear forest land for plantations.

"DPR would  evaluate the license to open forest land with fires in a number of sub-district and lower district areas,"  DPR Speaker Setya Novanto said here on Monday.

Setya Novanto said the Law No. 32 of 2009 ruled against the use of fires to clear plantation and farm lands.  

"But chapter 2 of the law also said for the need to consider the wisdom of local administration in their respective areas," he said.

Some lower district administrations used chapter b2 of the law to justify their decision to allow the use of fire to clear lands, he said.

The parliament will also asked the government to declare forest fires as national disaster.

Meanwhile,te Commission of VIII of the Parliament strongly urged the government to ban conversion of fires ravaged forest lands into plantations.

"We urge for a presidential decision to ban the land leveled to the ground by fires from being converted into plantations. The ban would serve as a preventive measure against a repeat of forest fires in the future," Chairman of the  Commission Saleh Partaonan Daulay said.

Big forest fires have caused extensive damage to the country's tropical forests, and plantation companies and farmers  have been blamed for most of the disasters.

Forest fires have not only damaged the forests but the fires have caused tens of missions  of the people suffer as the result of the fires.

BNPB said at least 43 million people have suffered from difficulty of breathing with thick smokes blanketing villages  even a number of big cities.

Haze of black smoke has left 12 people dead from smokes related diseases mainly respiratory track infection.

Almost every year dirty smokes spewed by fores and bush fires have cause problem  in the country even in neighboring countries including Malaysia and Singapore. (WDY)