This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 22, 2024 - April 28, 2024
Large-scale land and forest fires regularly impact 30 million to 50 million hectares of land in Southeast Asia. These fires can generate smoke clouds covering hundreds of millions of hectares for months at a time, resulting in transboundary smoke haze that has severely impacted parts of all 10 Asean member states (AMS). As a result, over the past 25 years, the Asean region has experienced economic losses of hundreds of billions of US dollars together with immense social cost and environmental impacts. Furthermore, fires and the associated ecosystem degradation in Asean are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the land-use sector globally. The degradation is also linked to severe loss of biodiversity and critical ecosystems in the region.
The main drivers of land degradation, fires and GHG emissions vary among the subregions of Asean. In southern Asean, large-scale drainage of peatlands for tree crop and palm oil production as well as timber extraction have caused more than 15 million hectares of peatland to become vulnerable, with more than five million hectares repeatedly burnt over the last 20 years. Additionally, up to 90% of the transboundary smoke haze in southern Asean is thought to come from peatland fires. In northern Asean, fires and emissions are driven by land clearing for cultivating rice, sugar cane and maize crops as well as burning of related agriculture residuals (waste).
These challenges are exacerbated by the changing climate with projected increased temperatures, lower dry season rainfall, intensified El Niño and Indian Ocean Dipole drought processes, all leading to more intensive land and forest degradation and fires. The current El Niño drought affecting Southeast Asia has resulted in a significant increase of forest fires in many countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and northern Asean.
Over the years, tens of millions of hectares of forests and peatlands in Asean have been destroyed by fire, more than 100 million people have been adversely affected by the smoke clouds with millions of premature deaths recorded. The fires and smoke haze disrupts agriculture, tourism, transport and other sectors. Economic impacts have been estimated at up to US$28 billion in Indonesia alone in one year (2015).
Forest, peatland and land fires are major GHG (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) emitters. Peatland, forest and agricultural burning are also major sources of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution, which is also a critical Short-lived Climate Forcer (SLCF) with a warming impact 460 to 1,500 times stronger than CO2 per unit of mass. Thus, reducing forest and peatland fires and agricultural burning will have a major impact on reducing GHG emission and global climate change.
In response, the AMS have developed a number of plans and mechanisms including the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) signed in 2002, the ASEAN Peatland Management Strategy first for 2006-2020 and subsequently from 2023-2030; and the ASEAN Haze-Free Roadmap first for 2016-2020 and then for 2023-2030. Malaysia has also developed a National Haze Action Plan and is currently finalising the Master Plan for Fire-Prone Peatland Management in Malaysia.
A multi-stakeholder, multi-country approach is needed to implement these plans. This is particularly important since commodity supply chains cross borders and fires and haze disrupt regional economy and health. While there are many solutions, the challenge is to generate resources and capacity to act at sufficient scale in an integrated manner, across a wide range of locations with the involvement of a broad range of different sectors and stakeholders (including government, communities, private sector and civil society).
In January 2022, Deputy Secretary-General of Asean Ekkaphab Phanthavong pointed out: “Transboundary haze challenges in Asean can be better addressed by a higher level of commitments and investment from all stakeholders.”
To address this challenge, Global Environment Centre (GEC), with the support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has been actively helping the Asean Secretariat to develop the Asean Investment Framework for Haze-Free Sustainable Land Management (AIF-HFSLM). Through the Framework, Asean aims to build multi-stakeholder partnerships at the regional level to enhance in the period 2023-2030 the availability of resources to stop large-scale burning of forests, peatland and agricultural residue through socially and economically viable alternatives. The AIF-HFSLM was officially endorsed by Asean in August 2023 with an initial target to leverage US$1.5 billion (RM7.17 billion) in funding up till 2030.
The private sector can play a major role in stopping fires and transboundary haze. The oil palm sector has already taken action to stop fires in and around oil palm plantations. This is linked to commitments to stop both deforestation and further development of peatlands. This, together with strong action by the Indonesian government, has led to the significant reduction of transboundary haze in southern Asean in the last five years. A similar approach is needed for the sugar cane, rice and maize commodity supply chains to stop the burning of the so-called crop waste, which should be recycled as organic fertiliser or converted into bioplastics or other bioproducts, using a circular economy approach. The private sector should also invest in new technologies for agricultural waste utilisation and initiate carbon finance projects to protect and restore forests and peatlands to prevent fires and reduce emissions. Consumers should also support purchase of “haze-free” products, by buying commodities that are certified sustainable and grown without the use of fire.
Malaysia needs to work in partnership with its Asean neighbours, while effectively engaging the private sector, civil society and other stakeholders to overcome this challenge. We need to take a “whole of society” approach in order to succeed. The Malaysian government needs to strengthen regulations to prevent peatland and forest fires and facilitate or incentivise the better engagement of the private sector and local communities.
Faizal Parish is the director of the Global Environment Centre. He has worked for more than 40 years on the protection and management of the environment, mainly in the Asean region, with more than 25 years focused on the protection and management of peatlands and preventing transboundary haze.
This column is part of a series coordinated by Climate Governance Malaysia, the national chapter of the World Economic Forum’s Climate Governance Initiative. The CGI is an effort to support boards of directors in discharging their duty of care as long-term stewards of the companies they oversee, specifically to ensure that climate risks and opportunities are adequately addressed.
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