Haze in Southeast Asia

Fire burning in a company concession platation in Riau Province, Indonesia

The hase comes from the forest of Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia now turned into palm oil plantations. The clearing of land by burning is much faster and cheapper than the use of  machineries.

What is causing the haze and why?

The haze comes from fires set to clear forest land for agriculture, often palm-oil plantations. It is an annual occurrence but many researchers say it is worse this year because of severe drought caused by El Nino. Herry Purnomo, a researcher at the Center for International Forestry Research, says clearing land by fire is fast and about 10 times cheaper than using machinery. Demand for cleared land has risen alongside demand for palm oil, which is found in a wide variety of products including shampoo and ice cream, he said. Indonesia is the world’s biggest producer of the commodity and plantations owned by Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean companies earned about $18.4 billion in revenue last year, Mr. Purnomo said.

Where are the fires occurring?

Mostly in Sumatra and in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo. These once forest-rich islands are now largely covered in plantations. Environmentalists often point to plantation firms as the fires’ culprits. Companies say it’s mostly local actors. Unclear land ownership adds to the finger pointing. Many parties are involved, and the fires happen in state forests, community-owned land and within plantation company concessions, Mr. Purnomo said. According to Global Forest Watch, an online forest monitoring system created by the World Resources Institute, about 35% of the fires over the past week occurred in pulpwood, palm oil or logging concessions.

 What is the impact?

The center estimates economic costs to the region will reach close to $14 billion. The direct costs come from damage caused by the fires, but there are also related impacts on health, the environment and tourism. According to Greenpeace, around 110,000 deaths occur annually from pollution-related illnesses stemming from the haze. The loss of forest cover also deprives wildlife of habitat and increases conflicts between endangered species such elephants and tigers and the communities near which they live. Fires on peat land, which currently accounts for about 40% of the burned area, unlock huge carbon stores, releasing climate-changing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That matters since Indonesia is working to reduce its emissions in time to meet a 2020 commitment. Greenpeace says 20% of the carbon emissions from Indonesia – one of the world’s biggest emitters – come from fires on peat.

What’s needed to stop it?

Plantation companies need to use land more productively rather than expand their concessions, the center says. The government also needs to better enforce laws that prevent forests and forested peatland from being developed for agriculture. In May, President Joko Widodo renewed a ban on new licenses to log primary forest and peatland, but the results since the moratorium was first signed in 2010 have been below expectations. Environmentalists say restoration projects and strict law enforcement would help, as well as changing the complex network of economic interests that drives demand. A complex patronage network comprising farmers, local officials and businessmen benefit enormously from the fires, said Mr. Purnomo, and needs to be eliminated. Responsibility also rests with Malaysia and Singapore since companies based there reap many of the benefits of the sale of Indonesian palm oil, he said. Greenpeace says the government should speed up work on a comprehensive land-use map that would include plantation concession information to better determine who owns what land.

What is being done?

Some of the biggest pulp and paper and palm oil companies in Indonesia have made no-deforestation pledges, largely to meet sustainability commitments that allow them to export to companies in Europe and the U.S. Many have also put no-burn policies in place, which they say they apply to all their suppliers. Tofan Mahdi, spokesman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, said one of its members was among those who had their licenses suspended and the association was considering expelling it. Under national laws companies caught clearing land by fire could suffer sanctions, such as fines or jail time. Last year Singapore introduced legislation that allows it to prosecute companies found to be a cause of the haze.