Fight against haze

Indonesia's Parliament voted to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution on September 16. The move, which comes 12 years after Jakarta first signed the agreement to reduce haze pollution from land and forest fires in Southeast Asia, requires Indonesia to work closely with fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to tackle the fires at both the national and regional levels. Indonesia will have to be more transparent in sharing information.

The ratification comes as neighboring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia may have to endure poor air quality until at least the end of next month due to forest fires spreading in South Sumatra. Indonesia had been perceived as slow in responding to the contentious issue of haze - a type of dirty fog, in which ash and other particles caused by burning and pollution accumulate and create a thick, polluted low layer of dust in the atmosphere.

Andika Putraditama, the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Research Analyst in Indonesia, explains in a DW interview why it took Indonesia so long to ratify the pact and says that while ratification of the treaty sends a clear signal that illegal land and forest fires in Indonesia will no longer be tolerated, the effectiveness of the newly ratified ASEAN treaty will ultimately depend on the quality of enforcement in each country.

DW: What does the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution entail?

Andika Putraditama: The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution is a regional agreement to try and tackle the long-standing issue of haze pollution caused by forest and peat fires. It indicates that each country has a specific responsibility to prevent, monitor and mitigate transboundary haze pollution.

The very core of this agreement demands parties involved cooperate in controlling the sources of land and/or forest fires, encourage data sharing and transparency on key information related to transboundary haze and its sources, and take legal, administrative and/or other measures to implement their obligations under the agreement.

Why did it take Indonesia so long to ratify the agreement, despite the fact that haze pollution has been a problem for years?

Over the past decade, Indonesia has become the site of the most intense land and forest fires, and bears responsibility for much of the haze problem in the region. So the treaty was always likely to come with the highest cost for Indonesia in terms of changing policy and enforcement.

Indonesia did actually sign the treaty when it was initially proposed, but Indonesia's powerful parliament refused to ratify it, seeing it as a potential loss of sovereignty. Back in 2006, the Chairman of Commission VII of the Indonesia House of Representatives - which oversees energy, environmental and science issues - made a public statement on the House's rejection to ratify the Agreement.

As he explained, the meeting with the executive branch counterpart revealed that Indonesia was not yet ready to implement the obligations set forth on the agreement, mainly because the Parliament identified there is still a significant lack of coordination among agencies that are relevant to land and forest fires.

During the parliamentary hearing, it was also revealed that government of Indonesia felt they were not ready to setup the institutional infrastructure to support the agreement, that includes the appointment of Indonesia focal point to ASEAN specifically for transboundary haze issue, develop a nation-wide monitoring system, strengthen forest management and local fire-fighting capacity.

All these activities need to be facilitated with a strong legal mandate as well as careful and tactical cross-agencies coordination plan, thus, it was decided that Indonesia would make the agreement as a priority and develop its own internal capacity to prepare itself to ratify the agreement in the future.

Who is causing the forest fires and why?

Generally, the fires are used as a method to clear land for agriculture, either by clearing existing forest or degraded scrubland. The major crops that are usually planted afterwards include oil palm, which produces the world's most widely-consumed vegetable oil, or wood fiber plantations.

But not all fires appear to be directly linked to agriculture - some communities may use fire as a weapon in disputes with companies over land. And some fires may be set with a specific purpose but quickly burn out of control.

The actual responsibility for the fires is a very complicated question. While the specific articles in the transboundary haze bill are largely already incorporated in Indonesia's existing regulations aimed at reducing fires and illegal burning, it could create added pressure to enforce those laws.

Despite a long history of rampant illegal burning, recent events show that Indonesia is taking the fires more seriously. Outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently tasked Indonesia's National REDD+ Agency (BP REDD+) to strengthen efforts on coordination across the government to address fires.

The agency, working with other branches of government, established a "situation room" for fire response. By using real-time tools like GFW Fires, it's working to reduce fire response time by 80 percent, from 30 hours or more down to two to four hours.

What are Indonesia's obligations under the agreement?

The agreement comprehensively addresses obligations for each party. Generally, it demands parties involved to (1) cooperate in controlling the sources of land and/or forest fires, (2) encourage data sharing and transparency on key information related to transboundary haze and its sources, and (3) take legal, administrative and/or other measures to implement their obligations under the agreement.

Does the agreement foresee any enforcement obligations?

While the treaty is "legally binding" in sense that it is now ratified by Indonesia, it does not specify any specific sanction for members, and this is very common in most ASEAN products, mostly because of the non-interference principle the organization highly upholds.

The strategic importance of the ratification lies within the willingness of Indonesia to join a regional mechanism to address the issue. This is one step in the right direction to allow increased transparency and accessibility to key set of information among members and a much more coordinated effort to tackle the issue.

An article by David B. Jerger on Sustainable Development Law & Policy Journal, which examines Indonesia's role in this ASEAN Transboundary Haze Agreement, provides some interesting perspective on the effectiveness of enforcement in multinational agreement. Coercive multi-national law enforcement also requires a very difficult litigation process, and due to the very complex issue of transboundary haze, this is not a preferable way to approach the issue.

That is why multilateral environmental agreement such as this one can be more effective in addressing the issue by providing a multinational forum to encourage increase of compliance over time and facilitate the parties involved to respond to the issue with stronger cooperative manners rather than a confrontational approach.

Will the agreement be enough to solve the haze problem?

The treaty itself will not be enough to solve the haze problem, but it is a good start. As with other regulations, the effectiveness of the newly ratified ASEAN treaty will depend on the quality of enforcement in each country. But it signals a willingness by the government to take this issue seriously and hold itself accountable for future fires and haze.

Andika Putraditama is the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Research Analyst based in Jakarta, Indonesia.