Presented by Siwaporn Rungsiyanon, Director, Transboundary Air Pollution, Pollution Control Department, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand, at "A Stronger ASEAN Response to Potential Transboundary Haze Event in the wake of Pandemics" on 4 August 2020.

2. Outline of Presentation
1. Fire and Haze Situation
2. New Norm during COVID-19
3. Teleconference Meeting on
Smoke Haze Incident in Mekong
Sub-Region

3. - Cumulative hotspots in year 2020 is better than 2019
- Haze situation in year 2020 is worse than year 2019

4. Policies for Haze prevention in Northern Thailand year 2020
- Data unity creation and public awareness building
- Policy declaration and public relation
- Implementation of National Action Plan for mitigating
air pollution (particulate matter)
Policies
year 2020
 Minimize forest fires during 15
March - 30 April 2020
 Mobilize fire fighters from outside
areas of fire prone
 Allocate budget to local areas
 ASEAN Haze Agreement
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
 Implement single command
to control air pollution by
provincial governor
 Set quota burning to local
areas
 Command and focus on fire
prone districts
Ministry of Interior
 Control open burning in roadside areas
Ministry of Transport
 Convert agricultural lands in
Northern Thailand to the zero-
burning agriculture within 3
years.
 Support private sectors to ban
products causing deforestation
and forest degradation.
 Artificial rain
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
 Support fire surveillance and
suppression via land and aircraft
mobilization
 Township border committee (TBC)
Ministry of Defense

5.  Weekly follow up (VTC)
(2 times a week)
 Participants:
- Ministry of Defense
- 17 provinces of Northern
Thailand
- Meteorological Department
- Geo-Informatics and Space
Technology Development Agency
- Pollution Control Department
 To exchange information, monitor
and evaluate action plans
National Fire and Haze Emergency Response Committee
levels of command; Regional and Provincial

6. Outline of Presentation
1. Fire and Haze Situation
2. New Norm during COVID-19
3. Teleconference Meeting on
Smoke Haze Incident in Mekong
Sub-Region

7.  Daily follow up (VTC)
 Participants:
• Ministry of Natural Resources
and Environment (MONRE)
(Permanent Secretary of MONRE,
Inspector General of MONRE,
General Directors of Pollution
Control Department, Royal Forest
Department and Department of
National Parks, Wildlife and Plant
Conservation)
• Ministry of Defense
• 17 provinces of Northern
Thailand
• Kanchanaburi Province
 To monitor, command and evaluate
forest-fire control activities
Special Ad Hoc for North Haze Situation Control
Under the MONRE

8. Daily Follow up on Forest Fire and Haze Problems
Government (PM, deputy
PM, and Minister of MONRE)
closely monitored the
situation and prevent new
cases of burning in the fire
areas
PM commanded relevant
organisations to take more
actions on law enforcement
Resource mobilisation
Rotating human resources
and aircrafts to handle the
situation in the risk areas
Emphasising on
communication to raise
public understanding,
awareness, and participating
Using hotspot data from
Suomi NPP for controlling,
and evaluating the situation
Coordinating with
neighboring countries and
carrying on ASEAN Haze
Agreement

9. Outline of Presentation
1. Fire and Haze Situation
2. New Norm during COVID-19
3. Teleconference Meeting on
Smoke Haze Incident in Mekong
Sub-Region

10. The Teleconference Meeting
on Smoke Haze Incident in Mekong Sub-Region
- Thailand requested a meeting between the 3 upper Mekong
countries (Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand) regarding the smoke
haze incident in the northern part.
- ASEAN Secretariat organised the teleconference meeting on
April 3rd, 2020, facilitated by the Director of Sustainable
Development Directorate
- ASEAN Secretariat updated the regional haze situation and
the ASEAN SOP. The 3 countries updated fire and haze
situation and actions taken.
- The Meeting agreed to further enhance actions and
coordination at national level to suppress fires.
- The Meeting agreed to continue cooperation, and to