Malaysia will help Indonesian farmers practice safer farming methods to help curb forest fires blamed for the choking haze which shrouds the region annually, the environment minister said.

douglas uggah embas Environment Minister Douglas Unggah Embas said both countries would sign a memorandum of understanding by June to enable Malaysian experts to assist farmers in the fire-prone Riau region on Indonesia's Sumatra island.

"Among the programmes lined-up after the MOU is signed includes capacity building to help them achieve their zero-burning target, rehabilitation of burned peat land and develop an early haze warning system," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Environment department director Rosnani Ibrahim said Malaysian farmers practiced controlled burning methods which could be shared with neighbouring Indonesia.

"We will provide training for planters and farmers, in our capacity building programmes, on the concept of zero-burning and controlled burning," Rosnani told reporters.

"We have very well established practices which have worked well in Malaysia and can be successfully prescribed to Indonesian farmers," she added.

More hotspots detected

Indonesia has said it was confident of reducing the number of illegal fires or "hotspots" this year, as the region braces for the annual dry season haze crisis.

Rosnani said Malaysian meteorologists last week recorded about 200 to 300 hotspots in the Riau region alone, causing skies to turn hazy in west Malaysia.

haze sarawak 180806 plantation fires With the La Nina weather pattern expected to ease between June and August, the environment minister said "we have to be prepared for the possibility of increasing hotspots."

The region experiences an annual dry period from May until early October.

"This hot and dry season is something normal. During this time, open burning activities are expected to rise. We are taking steps to face any possibilities," Embas said.

Indonesia has yet to ratify a regional treaty charted in 2002 on preventing the haze although officials have said it was close to doing so.

Indonesia and the Philippines are the only members of the 10-nation Southeast Asian bloc which have not ratified the deal, which would compel Indonesia to create a strict zero-burning policy.

- AFP