Haze Without Borders in Southeast Asia

By: Carolina Lanefelt

Months-long wildfires in Borneo and Sumatra are emitting toxic haze and crossing national borders into Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. This year’s Super El Niño, or “Godzilla” El Niño, has driven average sea-surface temperatures in the tropical central Pacific to record highs. More than 170,000 people in Indonesia required treatment for acute respiratory infections in August and September. Hundreds of schools in Indonesia and Malaysia have been forced to close, and emergency rooms have been inundated with patients.

Many fires begin as small-scale blazes lit to clear land, a cheap practice that temporarily fertilises the land, usually for oil palm plantations. The cutting and burning of natural vegetation is widely known as slash-and-burn agriculture. Coupled with the unusually hot, dry weather brought by El Niño, fires can quickly spiral out of control. By October 6, Indonesian wildfires had emitted 140.5 megatonnes of planet-warming carbon, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

David Gaveau, a landscape ecologist, wrote on LinkedIn: “Over decades, forests across Borneo were logged and cleared, peatlands were drained, and tens of thousands of kilometres of canals were dug to lower water tables for plantations.” This suggests that the wildfires are not solely due to El Niño, but must also be understood in the context of decades of land use.

Of Indonesia's estimated 24.2 million hectares of peatland, 16.4 million hectares have been degraded and are vulnerable to fire, according to the Pantau Gambut NGO. Peatland fires burn without open flames; therefore, they are difficult to detect and extinguish. They can burn underground for weeks, releasing toxic smog. The smog contains harmful gases such as formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, and PM2.5 particles, capable of penetrating the lungs or bloodstream.

The consequences extend to people living in affected areas, where air quality has far surpassed the healthy range. Throughout September, central Kalimantan’s air reached hazardous levels every day, meaning the reported index exceeded 300. On 10 September, it reached a rating of 1142. Ely Marlina, a 46-year-old school teacher and volunteer firefighter, told the Guardian: “While we sleep, the whole family is just breathing in the smoke. The physical toll is visceral; eyes are left stinging and weeping daily … It feels like if we keep breathing in this smog, the dizziness will take over and our bodies will just give out.”

Regional governments have tried working together to tackle the haze crisis. Indonesia granted permission for Malaysian agencies to operate along their shared border for cloud seeding, while Malaysia has offered helicopters, an aircraft and personnel to assist efforts. Indonesia has not declared a state of national disaster as of 15 October.

Enforcement has proven a challenge for Indonesia. The Indonesian government has deployed approximately 60,000 people to tackle forest and land fires across six provinces, Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir told CNA. They have also pursued restoration, including rewetting 4.16 million hectares of peatland and building 45,000 canal barriers to stop drainage. Police have arrested individuals and identified companies allegedly linked to the fires. Despite these efforts, Greenpeace campaigner Belgis Habiba told AFP that fires continued in some restored peatlands, a few even being responsible for the highest hotspot counts.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), comprising the region’s 11 countries, has an existing framework for addressing the crisis. In fact, the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP), signed in 2002 and in force since 2003, commits member states to work together on fire prevention and provide mutual assistance. Yet the recurrence of severe haze raises questions about the agreement’s efficacy. The AATHP is not capable of automatically penalising a state for non-compliance, while also relying on core principles of consensus-building and non-interference.

During a ministerial meeting in Bali in July, the Malaysian government suggested collaboration among ASEAN nations on research, data usage, and scientific expertise. They also proposed increasing funding for the environmental sustainability fund. Such cooperation could improve fire monitoring and prevention to reduce transboundary haze.

This raises the question of whether slash-and-burn agriculture should continue despite its consequences. Although burning offers a cheap alternative to clearing land, it can threaten public health and cause transboundary haze in countries with little control over the fires’ origins during the dry season. ASEAN’s challenge is to strengthen fire prevention and regional cooperation before another dry season of wildfires and haze. On 12 October, Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan announced he would discuss transboundary haze with his counterparts ahead of the November summit in Manila.

Image: Wikimedia Commons