Forest fires and the resulting haze become annual disasters in Indonesia, affecting transportation, economic activity, the environment and health – as well as regional relationships.

As the situation worsened in late June, especially after the haze began to choke Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stepped in to resolve the crisis, ordering the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) take immediate action and deploy three helicopters to create artificial rain.

"Indonesia will address the forest fires in Riau and will take stern action," the president tweeted June 27th, naming the province in Sumatra where the worst fires were burning.

Jakarta also engaged in dialogue with its neighbours to reduce tensions over the haze, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said.

"We understand that the haze crisis has impacted our neighbouring countries, especially Singapore and Malaysia. They have expressed their concerns," Marty told reporters on June 26th.

"Singapore's foreign minister has been communicating with us. We explained what steps we are taking."

By July 2nd, thanks to heavy rainfall, a change in wind direction, and prevention measures, the worst of the haze crisis was over. Efforts to extinguish hot spots in parts of Riau are still under way.

As of July 9th, the government had spent Rp 57.7 billion ($5.8m) on operations to extinguish this year's fires in Riau, BNPB spokesman Agus Wibowo told reporters.

The bulk of the funds were used for cloud seeding, and the rest for human resources – some 2,000 personnel, mostly military and police, deployed through July 21st to handle the disaster, Antara quoted him as saying.

Slash and burn methods blamed

Indonesia's annual fires result from slash and burn farming methods, considered a fast and cheap method of clearing land for agricultural uses. Fires are particularly bad after a light monsoon season dries out the vegetation; windy conditions quickly fan smoke across a broad region.

Over the years, choking smoke from forest fires spilled into neighbouring countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Thailand, negatively impacting Indonesia's reputation. In 2011, haze from forest fires even affected the Southeast Asian Games, taking place that year in Palembang, South Sumatra and Jakarta.

According to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), land and forest fires have occurred since 1997 in Riau. "The modus and the motive are always the same: burning land for farming," WALHI Executive Director Rico Kurniawan said.

Even small scale fires set by local farmers are likely to become uncontrolled during the dry season, but they are not the main culprits, according to Hari Febrianto, a resident of Kalimantan, where huge swathes of jungle are regularly cleared for palm oil plantations.

"Local farming is an issue. However, there are also many giant companies in the region using a similar method on a larger scale. This makes the situation worse. More than 75% of forest fires happen on plantation fields," he said.

Singapore thanks Indonesia

On June 30th, Singapore expressed satisfaction with Indonesia's response to the haze crisis.

"As the saying goes, when there is a will, there is a way. Thank you, President SBY, for showing the will, graciousness, and dignified statesmanship," Singapore's former prime minister Goh Chok Tong commented on his Facebook account that day.

"It may not be possible to totally stop poor farmers from using slash-and-burn practices but it should be easy to prevent commercial plantation owners from doing so," wrote Goh.

"With satellite technology, new laws if necessary and political will, smoking guns can be identified, confiscated and made to pay," he added.