据《雅加达邮报》3月15日报道：占碑省长Zumi Zola声称该省几乎所有林火都是因为烧荒蓄意而为。

Zumi周一在雅加达称：“在占碑，只有少部分火灾是自然原因引起。在过去三个月期间，我们已经抓到了五个试图放火的人。”

由于缺少降雨，占碑省又有林火发生。气象学、气候学和地球物理机构(BMKG)占碑站负责人Nurangesti Widyastuti表示，如果未来几天还不降雨，林火可能会更加严重。

Zumi表示，省政府努力对抗林火，包括部署官员和居民消灭火灾，禁止刀耕火种的烧荒方式，并建议若发现有公司对森林非法纵火，则撤销其许可证。

Zumi说：“我们正对森林进行持续检测。我们对仍采用刀耕火种的公司所有者进行罚款和控告。”

当地政府还敦促私人公司来帮助对抗森林火灾。

他补充道：“对于种植公司来说，这是履行企业社会责任项目的正确时机，而不仅仅是做慈善。”

Jambi Governor Zumi Zola has claimed that nearly all forest fires in his province are intentionally started as part of land-clearing efforts.

"In Jambi, only a small percentage of fires occur naturally. During the last three months, we have already caught five people for burning attempts," Zumi said in Jakarta on Monday.

Forest fires have returned to the province on account of a lack of rainfall. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) Jambi station head, Nurangesti Widyastuti, said the fires may worsen if rain did not fall in the coming days.

The provincial government’s efforts to fight forest fires include deploying officials and residents to extinguish the fires, banning the slash-and-burn method for land clearing and recommending the revocation of licenses for companies found guilty of forest burning, said Zumi.

"We are monitoring forest continuously. We are fining and charging owners of companies who still adopt the slash-and-burn method," Zumi said.

In cooperation with the local legislative council (DPRD), the Jambi government has issued a bylaw prohibiting the slash-and-burn method for land clearing.

"We have a program that provides each district with one excavator. But implementing the program is hard as we are short of funds," Zumi said.

The local government has also urged private companies to help combat forest fires.

“For the plantation companies, this is the right time to implement CSR [corporate social responsibility] programs and not just give charity,” he added.

Jambi was among the provinces most affected by last year’s forest fires, which spread haze to neighboring Singapore and Malaysia and caused serious health problems. (bbn)