PM holds emergency meeting on air pollution as forest fire season looms

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra convened a high-level meeting at Government House on Wednesday to address Thailand's persistent fine particulate matter (PM2.5) problem, with particular focus on the looming threat of seasonal forest fires in the country's northern and western regions.

Though Bangkok's air quality has shown marked improvement in recent weeks, officials expressed growing concern about burning activities detected across Thailand's mountainous border regions.

"The capital's air quality readings have reached acceptable levels, but we're now facing a new challenge as the forest fire season begins in the North and West," Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong told reporters following the ministerial gathering.
 

The PM, flanked by six Cabinet members including Deputy PM Anutin Charnvirakul and Environment Minister Chalermchai Sri-on, issued a four-point action plan to tackle the emerging crisis:

• The Interior Ministry has been tasked with monitoring forest burning incidents nationwide while working with agricultural authorities to provide guidance to farmers on alternatives to crop burning.
• The Digital Economy Ministry will establish a centralised monitoring system for tracking fires, reporting directly to the Prime Minister's Office.
• Environmental authorities have been ordered to increase surveillance of both natural and human-caused forest fires, with enhanced protection measures for vulnerable woodland areas.
• In a significant economic measure, the Commerce Ministry has been instructed to boycott agricultural products derived from burned fields, specifically requesting that animal feed manufacturers avoid raw materials from areas where burning practices continue.
   

The Prime Minister also directed the Foreign Ministry to intensify diplomatic engagement with neighbouring countries, noting that satellite imagery has identified Cambodia as hosting the region's primary hotspots, followed by areas bordering Myanmar and Laos.

Government spokesman Jirayu Huangsab revealed that Paetontarn has set an ambitious target of reducing pollution incidents by at least 50 per cent by the year-end.

"The prime minister's vision is to have PM2.5 disappear from our national headlines within the next 8-9 months," Jirayu said. "She has demanded strict enforcement of existing environmental regulations."

Officials pointed to recent successes in their pollution mitigation strategy, including a dramatic reduction in sugarcane burning following the Industry Ministry's implementation of a policy rejecting cane shipments with more than 25 percent burn damage.

The meeting, which included the ministers of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, comes as Thailand enters its traditional dry season, when agricultural burning and forest fires typically cause hazardous spikes in air pollution across the northern provinces.