Heat is on Indonesia

Heat is on Indonesia

Southeast Asia's haze problem, the result of wanton forest burning in Indonesia's western provinces, has a well-known pathology. Plantation companies and nomadic cultivators burn exhausted trees and undergrowth for new planting, as this makes sense to them. The method saves on labor and time, so it is cheap. Laws against open-burning, such as they exist, are ignored. Provincial and local-area enforcement officers are no match for the patronage clout of these firms. So they choose to do nothing. If engaged, these companies have time-honored means of sending troublesome officers on their way. As for the huge numbers of cultivators in the forests of Kalimantan and Sumatra, they cannot relate to restrictions they see as obstructions to their simple lives. Still less do they comprehend the damage, running into billions of dollars, the smoke pollution can cause their country and other nations further afield. As recently as March, when a thick haze shrouded northern Sumatra, Indonesian officials said they were undermanned and not equipped to do anything about the forest fires. "Until now, we have not succeeded in mobilizing resources to put out the fires," said Antung Dedy, an assistant to the Forestry Minister. Take that as fairly consistent throughout the western half of the archipelago. Then, it is clear the mix of ingrained habits, weak laws and indifferent enforcement will conspire to make the haze problem basically intractable.

This is the backdrop the 10 ASEAN countries are up against as their governments proceed in the coming months to ratify a treaty on haze management which they signed in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. This took place at the World Conference on Land and Forest Fire Hazards, a United Nations Environment Program event. Die-hard optimists, who hold that a binding document that places some sort of an onus on its signatories is better than nothing, must expect improvements in the situation to be glacial, at best. As an illustration, this agreement took four years to put together, after the horrendous 1997 haze convinced the core South-east Asian nations that it would be irresponsible to regard the air pollution as providential. But the people of Singapore and Malaysia, the worst sufferers, would not be holding their breath. They know a treaty is only as good as the ability -- and willingness -- of signatory-states to live up fully to their obligations. The conduct of the key state Indonesia does not excite hope. It has veered between hand-wringing, appeals to its neighbors to show "understanding", and what sometimes can seem like a studied indifference. How may it be helped?

The treaty has most of the elements that an international protocol should have. For its purpose, the usefulness of the ASEAN Coordination Center for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control to collate data should not be underestimated. The pact makes it mandatory for signatories to come up with and enforce measures to control the smog, including provisions that member states are not to impede the transit of personnel and equipment to combat fires and the smog. But it does not set down punitive sanctions for violations. Sending a case to the International Court of Justice (against Indonesia, say) is also problematic, if at all possible. Sanctions serve little useful purpose if the root causes remain. But at the least, it is not unreasonable to expect Indonesia to see the treaty as a wake-up call for it to discharge its duty of care to itself and its neighbors. Essentially, it has to acknowledge it has run out of excuses. Action is wanted.

-- The Straits Times, Singapore