(July 17): Indonesia said it agreed to provide the governments of haze-hit neighboring Southeast Asian nations with maps of plantation concessions in fire-prone areas, though only on condition that they’re not made public.
“Our preference is for the concession maps to be made public so that companies can be punished,” Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore’s environment and water resources minister, told reporters after a ministerial summit in Kuala Lumpur today. “By having greater transparency on these companies responsible for the haze, it will ensure that they behave themselves.”
Singapore and Malaysia have been plagued for decades by periodic haze caused by clouds of ash from forest fires on Indonesia’s eastern Sumatra island, with regular spats over responsibility. Singapore saw its Pollutant Standards Index reach a record 401 on June 21, while a state of emergency was called in parts of Malaysia’s southern Johor state after smog readings surged above hazardous levels.
G. Palanivel, Malaysia’s minister for natural resources and the environment, today hosted the summit on trans-boundary haze a month early following last month’s outbreak. Balthasar Kambuaya, Indonesia’s environment minister, also met his counterparts from Singapore, Thailand and Brunei and agreed that digitized maps of land use and concessions could be shared between governments as part of a joint monitoring initiative.
“We can’t make details public as it involves domestic laws and other issues,” Kambuaya told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. “We have agreed to give concession maps for fire-prone areas and peat lands under a government-to-government understanding.”
Treaty ratification
Indonesia’s parliament may ratify a regional haze treaty by the end of this year or early next year, the minister said. Under this agreement, it would share information and get more assistance from neighboring Southeast Asian governments, according to Nigel Sizer, director of the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Initiative.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia’s president, apologized to his neighbors last month and pledged to work on solving the issue, as finger pointing continued over responsibility. There were 17 timber firms and 15 palm oil firms, including Singapore- listed Wilmar International Ltd., Kuala Lumpur-based Sime Darby Bhd. and Singapore-based Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd., with land in areas affected by fires, T. Nirarta Samadhi, an Indonesian government spokesman, said June 21, citing data from the non-government World Resources Institute.
Wilmar, the world’s biggest palm oil trader, said in a story published July 1 that it plans to cut ties with Indonesian suppliers that clear land with illegal fires. Sime Darby, the biggest publicly traded producer, said in a June 28 statement it had found fires on land at one of its units, though the blazes were in an area where local communities grew crops such as corn and sugar and not in areas it planted. Both firms have said they a have zero-burning policies.
The map-sharing agreement, which also covers palm oil plantations in Malaysia, is also subject to approval at the Asean Leaders’ summit in October, Palanivel said.
“It is one step forward, but a lot of things need to be improved, particularly from the Indonesian side in terms of investing more in forest protection, governance and law enforcement,” Yuyun Indradi, a campaigner with Greenpeace Indonesia, said in a phone interview. “Malaysia and Singapore should build regulations for those companies making an investment abroad.”
Last month, schools in Johor, Kuala Lumpur and other affected areas were closed and people advised to stay indoors as the country’s air pollutant index temporarily reached more than 750 in the southern Muar district. Malaysia reported its worst case of haze in 1997 when the pollution reading reached 839 in Kuching in the eastern Sarawak state, prompting the government to impose a 10-day emergency, according to the Star on June 24.