Organizers of the Asian Games are wary of the event being hit by haze from brush and peat fires in Sumatra.The government has called on pulpwood and oil palm companies to take steps to prevent fires during this year's dry season.
Of the nearly 3,000 villages located within peatlands throughout Indonesia, only one is permitted to manage the forest — a glaring omission that the government has been slow to address through its “social forestry" program.
Indonesia's highest court has struck down a regulation obliging forestry companies to relinquish and protect carbon-rich concessions to prevent a recurrence of annual fires.
