Historic Fire Haze Pact Takes Effect in Southeast Asia

JAKARTA, Indonesia, November 25, 2003 (ENS) - The world's first regional arrangement to fight transboundary haze pollution from land and forest fires entered into force today. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution became legally binding following ratification by Thailand 60 days ago.

Heat seeking satellites, better trained fire fighters, and a crackdown on arsonists and irresponsible plantation owners will all be used to suppress the peat fires that send blankets of smoke across much of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore during the dry season. The fires emit clouds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and destroy thousands of acres of rainforests that harbor rare and endangered species such as the organutan.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) hailed the haze pollution agreement as a potential global model for tackling transboundary issues worldwide. Beginning in March 2001 UNEP, in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat, assisted government negotiators in developing the terms of the agreement.

"I congratulate ASEAN and the Governments of Southeast Asia for their foresight and commitment in combating the threats posed by uncontrolled land and forest fires," UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said in a statement. "Such fires spell a double disaster for the environment through their massive release of greenhouse gases and their destruction of biodiversity."

Smoky haze rises from wildfire in 1998 in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. (Photos by Ludwig Schindler & Anja Hoffmann courtesy Integrated Forest Fire Management Project)

The 10 ASEAN member countries all signed the agreement on June 10, 2002 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during the World Conference and Exhibition on Land and Forest Fire Hazards.

The agreement provides for the establishment of an ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control to undertake the activities required under the agreement.

In practice, the national authority where the fires are burning will act first to put them out. When the national authority declares an emergency situation, it may make a request to the ASEAN Centre to provide assistance. The affected country may also ask assistance from other states or international organizations.

Participating countries will designate agencies to function as National Monitoring Centres. These agencies will monitor all fire prone areas, all land and/or forest fires, the environmental conditions conducive to such fires, and haze pollution arising from them.

The data gathered by this monitoring effort will be sent to the ASEAN Coordinating Centre, which will coordinate and analyze the information and provide an assessment of risks to human health or the environment from the fires.

Each participating country is obligated to develop and implement legislative and other regulatory measures, as well as programs and strategies to promote "zero burning policy" to deal with land and/or forest fires resulting in transboundary haze pollution, the agreement provides.

Parties must control open burning and prevent land clearing using fire. Indigenous knowledge and practices in fire prevention and management will be sought and utilized, and public education programs established.

Indonesian man stands in the blackened aftermath of a peat fire.

The agreement contains provisions for technical cooperation and scientific research and simplified customs and immigration procedures for disaster relief.

Based on the principles of cooperation and non-interference, the agreement does not impose penalties for Parties that do not abide by its terms; any disagreements will be settled by cooperation and negotiation, the agreement provides.

Long smoldering once started, the peat fires begin in a number of different ways. Villagers may burn a plot of land, claim ownership, then plant rice and other crops. Large commodity producers use fire to clear land for gardens and rice fields, or for oil palm, pulp wood and rubber plantations.

Fires started for land clearing may burn out of control and escape into forests. Loggers may start fires accidentally by leaving cooking fires wit the embers still glowing.

Poverty, development, and the lack of a fair system for allocating land resources between poor indigenous peoples, migrants looking for a livlihood, and corporations seeking to expand their investments all contribute motivations to set fire to the forest.

About 10 million hectares of Indonesia's forests, one of the world's centers of biodiversity, were destroyed in 1997-98 in fires started mainly on oil palm plantations and agricultural and forestry holdings on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

More than 20 million people were exposed to breathing extremely high levels of pollutants known to cause both acute and long term health effects, Airports in Singapore and neighboring countries were closed by thick smog, and total economic losses across the region were estimated at around US$9.3 billion.

Smoke from the Indonesian fires was responsible for the deaths six years ago of almost all coral and fish in a 400 kilometer (250 mile) stretch of Indonesia's Mentawai Islands reef, southwest of Sumatra, Australian scientists discovered.

Researchers at Canberra's Australian National University said they had established that smoke from the fires produces an algae bloom known as red tide which is toxic to most marine life. The red tide was caused by thick smoke from wildfires in Indonesia in 1997, the scientists told a conference in Melbourne.

While Indonesia has not ratified the ASEAN agreement, Indonesian officials did participate in a fire and haze disaster table top exercise with Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam in July. It was aimed at testing the coordination and communication mechanisms among the four countries in joint emergency response under the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

This year some large fires with smoke plumes more than 20 kilometers long burned on the Indonesian island of Sumatra in Riau province. Started in June, the fires will go on for months, say firefighting experts based in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) is suing Riau Governor Saleh Djasit for negligence over his inability to handle the forest fires in his province this year. In June Walhi sued the governor, seven regents and 20 forest concession holders and plantation companies over the forest fires.