Unmasking the Hazy Affair in Southeast Asia

"For 11 months, they enjoyed nice air from Indonesia and they never thanked us" is the recent remarks by Indonesia's vice president Jusuf Kalla last week evoked our memories of the dreadful haze episode back in 2013 when PSI readings hit a record high of 401 in Singapore. It is the epitome of the modern transboundary scale of air pollution as the 2013 Southeast Asian haze enshrouded several regional countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Today I will be discussing on the main causes behind the almost annual haze affair that has been blighting the Southeast Asia.

The haze episodes that the region has become increasingly familiar with, usually occur during the relatively drier period from June to September in the Southeast Asia. The drier conditions leads to the increased occurrence of natural forest fires. However, the drier conditions are also optimal for anthropogenic (man-made) fires to clear vegetation via the cheap and traditional agricultural practice known as the "slash and burn" technique, which is used by the indigenous locals in Indonesia for subsistence farming. 

Through the intentional burning of the vegetation, the remaining ashes will produce fertile soils for the growth of agriculture. It represents as a sustainable farming technique when it is done on a smaller scale with controlled burning. However, many companies in the huge palm oil industry in Indonesia have upscaled the "slash and burn" technique to clear large expanses of vegetation for the growth of oil palm plantations. As a result, the uncontrolled and often unmonitored burning has led to the severe haze episodes. The haze contains hazardous air pollutants such as the PM2.5, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, which will result in noticeable increases in respiratory cases especially among those who have pre-existing respiratory diseases.   

Slash and Burn Technique Used to Clear Vegetation
Source: Jacques Jangoux/ Getty Images

The ever-increasing global demand for cheap palm oil especially from China and India is spurring the unsustainable "slash and burn" technique so as to expand the oil palm plantations to cope with the demand. The palm oil is currently a hot commodity to manufacture a huge array of products ranging from soaps to pharmaceutical products. It is also an important ingredient for the preservation of food products due to its property to resist oxidation. The rampant burning of vegetations to clear land is also driven by competitive economic factor as these manufacturing industries always source for the cheapest palm oil to lower their production costs.

Although the open burning of forests has been made illegal in Indonesia,  corruption among the officials has led in the loose enforcement of the legislation. The persistent haze episodes have also been largely attributed to the general lack of political will of the Indonesian Government, which is evident in the  delay in the ratification of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. Fortunately, the Indonesian Government took a major step in ratifying the agreement last year, which will hopefully help in the better future management and control of illegal burning of forests through regional collaboration and support from other ASEAN countries. Stay tuned as I will discuss more on how we can do our part in the fight against the haze by being informed consumers and buy sustainable palm oil products in the next blogpost.