Forest fires subside in Indonesia

Efforts to extinguish wildfires have reduced number of hotspots in Indonesia, a minister said on Thursday.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar told reporters in Jakarta that a NASA satellite on Thursday afternoon discovered five hotspots in Sumatra and Kalimantan islands, a huge decrease from the 151 fire zones across the country detected by the state weather agency on Sunday evening.

"This indicates that the operation at the scene has been carried out well," she said at the chief security ministry.

On Sunday, the satellite also detected hotspots in other Indonesian islands, including Maluku, Java and Sulawesi Island, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of national disaster management agency, previously told Xinhua.

According to Sutopo, the fires have occurred since five weeks ago.

Measures to stop the fires have been taken since then, involving aircrafts, soldiers, police and firefighters, Yosiah Palindungan, official at the agency told Xinhua by phone on Thursday.

Going forward, Minister Nurbaya said that the government would create a system to prevent the repeat of forest fires and smooth the efforts to douse the blaze.

Last year, Indonesia experienced one of the worst forest fires disaster and haze crisis in history, as 19 people died from respiratory ailment and burn wounds.

The resulting haze from the inferno that razed 2.6 million hectares of land also blanketed most part of the Southeast Asia region, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Indonesia launched the biggest ever firefighting operation, involving over 22,000 soldiers and dozens of aircrafts with international aids, to douse the fires.

Slash-and-burn activity has been practiced in Indonesian agriculture for decades over its low costs to open plantations. Indonesia is home to the world's largest palm oil producer. Endit