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s forest fires continue to rage, the government is considering imposing harsher punishments on perpetrators to deter companies and individuals involved in land burning.

Presidential Chief of Staff Teten Masduki said on Tuesday that the government was mulling the application of economic disincentives, including banning those involved in forest fires from obtaining bank loans or selling land cleared by slash-and-burn, a major cause of forest fires in Riau.

The idea to impose economic disincentives, Teten said, was based on indications that forest fires did not occur only from natural phenomena, but also as a result of intentional slash-and-burn practices by both companies and individuals seeking profits.

He added that cleared land could be sold for a greater profit.

According to Teten, the scheme is still being drafted by the coordinating economic minister and has been communicated to some plantation and land owners.

'€œIt is merely a plan since the regulation has to be drafted first. It is intended as a preventive measure,'€ he added. '€œIt looks like some [companies] are pretty scared by the idea.'€

The measures, Teten said, could be imposed by amending the existing law or even by issuing a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu).

The existing regulation allowing those with 2 hectares of land to clear the land using slash-and-burn could be amended, he said, although Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar recently said that changing the existing provision risked affecting people'€™s livelihoods, given that slash-and-burn was a long-standing tradition.

A prolonged dry season and arid peatland have resulted in a spate of forest fires, causing haze to spread across much of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Singapore, as well as parts of Malaysia.

The government has tried various means to put out the fires, including dispatching military personnel to the worst-hit regions, but to no avail, with blazes in many regions still burning as of Tuesday.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has admitted that the raging forest fires have become increasingly difficult to quell.

BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that fires in 2012 and 2013 had been concentrated in Riau but were more widespread this year, with South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan recording the most severe cases.

'€œWater supply is also limited, while peatland is tricky to deal with,'€ Sutopo said.

It has been recorded that 42 million hectares of land are on fire in Sumatra and Kalimantan, while the police are currently working on 238 cases involving suspected fire starters.

The National Police said that of the 238 cases, 191 involved individual perpetrators while 47 involved corporations.

The government has also floated a plan to blacklist firms that perpetrate fires, stopping them applying for permits in the same line of forestry or plantation business within a certain period.

As many as 420 companies operating in Sumatra and Kalimantan are now being scrutinized by the Environment and Forestry Ministry for alleged involvement in forest and land burning.

'€œThere were 270 companies, but now we are scrutinizing 420 companies,'€ Siti said.

Of the number, 30 companies might soon face license revocation, she added.

According to the minister, her office has also forwarded more company profiles and data to the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry to be studied after the forestry ministry found indications of false concession permits given by other institutions and local administrations.
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