KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to exchange information in monitoring hotspots to prevent transboundary haze amid the current El Nino hitting the region, says Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup.
The Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister said the Minister of Environment in Indonesia has already agreed to increase the collaboration in monitoring hotspots triggering haze in parts of Malaysia and parts of the region.
Arthur said he met his Indonesian counterpart during the 37th Meeting of Asean Senior Officials on Environment (ASOEN) meeting last week, where he brought up the issue of respective countries helping each other to monitor air quality in the region.
He said that among the areas of cooperation was for enforcement agencies to make sure there is no open burning.
“We also share our airspace in case we need to do any cloud seeding operations. We can share each other's airspace and possibly our assets,” he told reporters after opening the International Conference on Tropical Forestry 2026 (TF2026) here on Tuesday (Aug 18).
“That is the concerted effort that we need to do at a regional level because this is a regional problem. I will always bring it up to the AAEAN level so that we can then do our best in order to coordinate this regionally,” he added.
“We need to acknowledge that haze is a problem that is not just faced by one country. It is a regional issue. What happens in our neighbouring countries will also affect us,” he added.
He said that he had presented the Meteorological Department system used in Malaysia at the Asean meeting and many of their partner countries were also using the system to monitor the air quality all across the region.
Arthur said apart from Indonesia, he also met with his other counterparts from the regional countries over the issue.
Arthur said that the country was currently transitioning to super El Nino which likely to see less frequent rainfalls, more dry weather and more hot spots.
“And that will cause more haze,” he said referring to current haze in southern Sarawak and also part of peninsular Malaysia.
Earlier, Arthur said ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) report forecasted that the El Nino phenomenon would be stronger than in 2025, with a longer dry period also expected and poses a major challenge, especially for countries with vast and extensive peatland areas.
On the proposed National Climate Change Act, Arthur said he was targeting for it to be tabled by the end of the year the federal government need to discuss with respective state governments rights on land and forestry matters.
