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