Satellite imagery and fire hot spot data derived from imagery have played a crucial role in the past few years in pinpointing the fire sources. On 15 March 2000 it was reported that the GOI had set up a forest fire enforcement team consisting of representatives from the police, Attorney General's Office and the Environmental Impact Management Agency. In Riau, four oil palm plantation companies were recently named as using fire to clear land despite zero-burning laws . To date, the fires this year have been worst in Riau. Other fire zones are found in peat swamp forest areas and associated with logged-over timber concessions being converted to plantations.
Climate predictions help assess the potential for severe drought and fires.
The ENSO leads to drought, which increases the risk of fires, and also conditions that are not conducive to the dispersion of smoke in the upper atmosphere. It is very unlikely that fires will reach a similar scale this year. Negative SOIs give rise to El Nino conditions. In the CPC advisory a slow build-up of El Ni o conditions is now reported however this phase of the ENSO cycle has historically lasted between one and two years before the subsequent development of warm ENSO conditions. Despite normal weather conditions predicted for this year, there is a strong chance fire and smoke will be a significant feature of the dry season this year and many years to come.