Protecting nature

We have known for weeks that a smoky haze from Indonesian forest fires has enveloped a number of countries in this region in its ghastly, choking nastiness. Now we know the cause of those devastating fires.

Satellite pictures have revealed that 90 percent of them were started by large logging companies. We also know that big corporations throughout the world have for years been impairing the earth's irreplaceable environmental capital through careless, unwise and improvident behavior.

These companies must learn to conduct their activities in a manner that is minimally disruptive to life-supporting ecological systems. Since they are important instruments for development in countries such as Indonesia, they have a prime role in assuring that development is not accompanied by dangerously high levels of air pollution.

With Sarawak in a state of emergency and air pollution indices in other Southeast Asian countries reaching emergency levels, the haze is clearly an issue of public health as well as an economic liability in much of the region. In Indonesia alone, two people have died and thousands have been made sick.

The offending companies must mend their ways by introducing a new corporate ethic which espouses a sense of environmental responsibility. And the Indonesian authorities must have the political will to take punitive action in order to ensure that the illegal burning stops forthwith.

-- The Hong Kong Standard