ASEAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTERS
TO TACKLE HAZE PROBLEM

            ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta, 28 Sept. - The ASEAN Environment Ministers are scheduled to meet from 6 to 7 October 2000 in Kota Kinabalu to review the progress of regional cooperation against transboundary haze pollution, which forms part of the ASEAN strategic plan of action on the environment. 

At the height of the haze pollution problem in late 1997, ASEAN adopted the Regional Haze Action Plan, which contained measures to mitigate the smoke haze arising from land and forest fires in some Sumatra and Kalimantan provinces of Indonesia.  It strengthened land and forest fire-fighting capability of the concerned countries and established a coordinating unit at the regional level.

Last year, ASEAN established a working group to monitor the operations of sub-regional fire-fighting arrangements for Sumatra and Borneo.  ASEAN has also adopted a zero-burning policy, which is being enforced by the member countries.

In addition to transboundary haze issues, the environment plan of action consists of cooperation in coastal marine environment, multilateral environmental agreements, and nature conservation and biodiversity. 

The Ministers are also expected to exchange views and coordinate positions on various international agreements, such as the medium-term regional programme for environmentally sound and sustainable development for Asia and the Pacific region adopted early this month in Kita-Kyushu City, Japan under the auspices of UN-ESCAP; the Rio+10 conference on environment and development; and the conference of parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change scheduled in November 2000.