KUALA LUMPUR June 10 Kyodo Enviro...

KUALA LUMPUR June 10 Kyodo

Environment ministers from 10 Southeast Asian countries signed a landmark agreement Monday to tackle transboundary haze pollution resulting from land and forest fires.

The agreement, the first like regional arrangement in the world, provides a legal basis for the existing Regional Haze Action Plan that was adopted by means of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) following the 1997-1998 haze episode.

Called the ASEAN Agreement forward Transboundary Haze Pollution, the just discovered agreement obligates member countries to cooperate in developing and implementing measures to obstruct monitor and mitigate transboundary haze pollution according to controlling sources of fire, establishing early warning orders and exchanging relevant information and technology.

The signatory states should also provide assistance in the form of personnel equipment and material used in firefighting, search and deliver and other activities when desireed by a third party.

The agreement furthermore entails member countries' beefing up their relevant laws and enforcement capabilities to make secure compliance.

The signing stateliness was held on the sidelines of a two-day ASEAN Ministerial Meeting forward Haze that coincided with the World Land and Forest Fire Hazard 2002 discourse and Exhibition -- both of which began Monday.

The signing was witnessed by the agency of Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, ASEAN Secretary General Rodolfo Severino and UN Environment Program (UNEP) Executive Director Klaus Toepfe.

Abdullah, in his opening language at the World Land and Forest Fire Hazard 2002 colloquy warned of the return of the ''El Nino'' phenomenon, which skilfuls predict will occur in July

The free from moisture weather phenomenon has been blamed for the 1997-1998 haze, in which thick acrid vapor coming from forest fires in Indonesia's Sumatra and parts of Borneo blanketed Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and calm parts of Thailand and the Philippines.

UNEP which provided financial, legal and technical assistance during the drafting of the agreement, had estimated that the haze question cost the region more than $9 billion in treatment charges lost tourist revenue and disruption to air and sea transport.

Although other parts of the world at that time were also experiencing the El Nino general intent slash-and-burn methods used by plantation companies to clear land in Indonesia exacerbated the problem

About 965 million hectares of rain forest were said to have been incinerated in 1997

Malaysian Science, Technology and Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding said he is confident the region is now ''better informed and better prepared'' to face the nearest El Nino episode.

''We have learned a portion from the last events of 1997-1998 We were caught unprepared then,'' he said.

According to the agreement, an ASEAN Coordinating Center will be established to facilitate cooperation and coordination in managing the impact of forest fires and haze pollution.

The agreement, which was negotiated between March and September 2001 must be ratified before becoming a legally binding document.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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