Protecting nature

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