#AnimatED: Seeing clearly through the haze

For about 2 decades, a scourge from Indonesia has blown over to neighboring countries, especially Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Like a yearly ritual, dark plumes of smoke rise to the skies, hide the sun and choke the air. Visibility drops forcing airlines to cancel flights. Pollution reaches a high, endangering our lungs.

The haze happens during the dry season when companies as well as communities burn whatever is left of the forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan and use the land for agriculture, usually palm oil. 

These “cemetery forests,” according to David Gaveau, scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Bogor, are peatlands which, in their natural state, canopied with trees, are fire-resistant. But laid bare, they become “extremely flammable.” All it takes is a few days without rain, Gaveau explains, for the peatlands to smolder; they generate much more smoke than the typical forest fires such as those in California and Australia. 

The haze has large economic and human costs but Jakarta has yet to harness firm and long-term solutions to the problem. One key here is to restore its denuded forests. (READ: Infographic: The Southeast Asian haze crisis)

Henry Purnomo, also of CIFOR, has proposed that after a designated period, timber areas that have been illegally converted into palm oil plantations should be returned to their previous state. Purnomo maps out details to make this policy work.

We should stop blaming Indonesia, President Aquino has said, but clearly it is the main actor here.  Instead, Aquino continued, we should do our share to help alleviate the situation.

Perhaps part of this is to acknowledge the corrosive effect the Philippines had on Indonesia’s forests. In the 1960s and 70s, it was our country that taught Indonesia how to log. 

During the Marcos years, logging was one of the main industries, a top export earner as the country quenched Japan’s appetite for wood. Indonesians looked up to us for the technology and, in partnership with Filipino businessmen, ravaged Kalimantan’s forests. 

Singapore, for its part, has taken the strongest position among the countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In 2014, it passed a groundbreaking law that allows it to go after local and foreign companies involved in illegal forest burning that causes severe air pollution in the city-state. 

The Transboundary Haze Pollution Act was hailed by the World Resources Institute as a “new way of doing business” and a move that “sends a powerful message” that those guilty will be held accountable.”

ASEAN can move in this direction to put pressure on Jakarta to strengthen law-enforcement, in the short term, and to apply policies that will address its land use and conservation needs. Otherwise, the annual haze season will continue to torment us. – Rappler.com