Indonesia's parliament refuses to endorse ASEAN haze bill

Channel NewsAsia 14 Mar 08;

JAKARTA : In a major setback for ASEAN in its efforts to fight the haze in the region, Indonesian lawmakers have refused to endorse a bill that will pave the way for Jakarta to ratify ASEAN's trans-boundary haze agreement.

Forests fires in Indonesia have been the main source of haze pollution that affects the region almost annually.

The unanimous decision to reject the bill was taken at a parliamentary hearing just two months after Indonesia pledged that it would protect its forests and save the environment. The pledge was made at the United Nation's Climate Change Conference in Bali.

World Wildlife Foundation Indonesia described the lawmakers move as a setback for the region.

Fitrian Ardiansyah, Director, Climate and Energy, WWF Indonesia, said, "Without Indonesia in favour of pushing this agenda at the regional level, there won't be any trans-boundary haze agreement."

Smoke has blanketed parts of the region annually, caused by forest fires in Indonesia's provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Environment ministers from Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia have started a number of initiatives to arrest the problem.

Airlangga Hartarto, Chairman, Indonesia's Parliamentary Commission on Environment and Energy, said, "A kind of cooperation at the working level - on the action level - is more (important) rather than an umbrella agreement with lots of bureaucracy and systems to be built..."

However the regional treaty - which is binding - is seen as a major step to tackle the problem.

Indonesian lawmakers said they will only ratify the treaty if it includes trans-boundary illegal logging and fishing.

They claim these activities are taking place in Indonesian territories but benefiting other ASEAN countries.

Mr Airlangga said, "The key issue will be on the market for illegal logging. If we can cut the market for this illegal logging, then I think the haze issue will be reduced significantly."

However environmental groups argue that those issues can be negotiated after Indonesia signs the agreement.

Mr Fitrian said, "We could do some sort of staggering approach whereby Indonesia ratifies this agreement and then by showing Indonesia is willing to commit, Indonesia can ask for further or more agreements on environmental issues like illegal logging, illegal fishing..."

Indonesia's lawmakers said they are still willing to discuss the issue further with Indonesia's government.

However it will unlikely be ratified during the current parliament term which is scheduled to end next year when the national elections are called. - CNA/ms

Haze efforts at a standstill
Indonesian legislators refuse to endorse Bill
Loh Chee Kong, Today Online 15 Mar 08;

IN A major setback for Asean's efforts to fight the haze in the region — and what observers describe as a further blow to the grouping's credibility — Indonesian lawmakers have refused to endorse a Bill that will pave the way for Jakarta to ratify the grouping's transboundary haze agreement.

The unanimous decision on Friday was taken at a parliamentary hearing just two months after the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, at which Indonesia had pledged to protect its forests and save the environment.

The Asean Transboundary Haze Agreement — which calls for regional coordinating centre to help fight the fires — came into force in 2003, with Indonesia the only member state yet to ratify it.

The main obstacle for ratification was illegal logging and fishing on Indonesia territory, with the country's lawmakers calling for action within the pact to eradicate such activities, which were benefiting other Asean countries.

Mr Airlangga Hartarto, chairman of Indonesia's Parliamentary Commission on Environment and Energy, said: "If we can cut the market for this illegal logging, then I think the haze issue will be reduced significantly."

Mr Airlangga added that Indonesia was receptive to a "kind of cooperation at the working level ... rather than an umbrella agreement with lots of bureaucracy and systems to be built".

Mr Charles Chong, who chairs the Singapore Government Parliamentary Committee on the Environment, told Today he would raise the matter with his Indonesian counterparts, at a scheduled meeting in Jakarta on Monday between Asean MPs to discuss the Myanmar situation.

Responding to the reasons put up by the Indonesian legislators not to pass the bill for ratification, Mr Chong said: "If they link too many unrelated issues, then they will never get anywhere."

In recent years, Singapore has been active in battling the haze, caused by forest fires in Sumatra and Borneo, that blankets the region every year. The worsening situation saw Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong writing to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2006, expressing his disappointment and urging Indonesia to deal with the problem effectively. Following this, environment ministers from Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia launched initiatives to arrest the problem.

Mr Chong said the Indonesians' apprehension towards a binding agreement "does not bode well" for Asean's ambitions to become a rules-based association. "They must show some commitment. If there's no commitment, I don't think there is a chance of success."

Describing the pact as a "baseline obligation" in the global fight against climate change, Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong concurred that the impasse was a further hit on Asean's credibility.

"It's quite disappointing. In the context of the Asean Charter, this raises serious questions about the sincerity and willingness to look out for other member states' interests," he said.

Environmentalists in Indonesia and Singapore were equally disappointed, although World Wildlife Foundation Indonesia director (climate and energy) Fitrian Ardiansyah felt the concerns of the Indonesia lawmakers were valid.

Mr Fitran told Channel NewsAsia: "We could do some sort of a staggered approach whereby Indonesia ratifies this agreement and then, by showing it is willing to commit, Indonesia can ask for further agreements on environmental issues such as illegal logging and illegal fishing."

Still, he acknowledged that without Indonesia's commitment, the agreement is as good as dead.

Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw said Indonesia would "risk marginalising itself" within Asean. "It is isolating itself in a changing global situation where we are looking at better environmental practices and ethics. In addition to the climate change, haze is something we feel year after year."

Former NMP Zulkifli Baharudin pointed out that this was hardly the first time that the Indonesian Parliament had failed to adhere to Mr Yudhoyono's public position. "It's a reflection of the difficulty of the political structure in Indonesia," he said.

While the Indonesian lawmakers were willing to discuss the issue further with its government, it is unlikely the agreement would be ratified during the current parliamentary term which is scheduled to end next year when the national elections are called.

Urging for good sense to prevail, Mr Chong said: "When there's too much politicking, even very good intentions can't move forward. Asean has made its position clear that it would help Indonesia combat the haze."

Indonesia rejects Asean treaty on haze
Legislators say pact does not address illegal logging, which is cause of haze in the country
Salim Osman, Straits Times 15 Mar 08;

JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S Parliament has rejected a Bill that would ratify an Asean agreement on haze. MPs said the treaty failed to mention illegal logging as one of the contributors of forest fires in the country.

Members of the Parliamentary Commission on the Environment told Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban that they would not support the ratification of the 2002 Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze unless the problem of illegal logging was also addressed by member countries.

Legislator Alvin Lie told a hearing with Mr Kaban on Thursday that the agreement would only benefit other members of Asean and would not serve the interests of Indonesia.

The pact obliges Asean countries to cooperate in implementing measures to prevent, monitor and mitigate haze pollution by controlling sources of land and forest fires, establishing early warning systems, exchanging information and technology, and providing mutual assistance.

Member countries are also obliged to respond promptly when a state requests information or is affected by such haze originating from within their territories.

If Indonesia ratifies the pact, the government would have to amend many of its regulations on pollution by adding a clause on zero-burning and controlled-burning practices.

The pact was signed by all Asean countries in 2002 and went into effect a year later. Only the Philippines and Indonesia have yet to ratify it.

Mr Lie, of the National Mandate Party, told The Straits Times that all factions in Parliament rejected the treaty because it failed to address Indonesia's main concern - illegal logging.

He said some Malaysian companies were involved in illegal logging in Indonesia, with tonnes of wood being shipped to the country. 'Illegal logging is rampant in Indonesia and has been the root cause of many of the forest fires that caused the haze in the region,' he said.

He suggested that a way out could be a parallel agreement on illegal logging, where member countries would be bound to help Indonesia combat the problem.

'While Asean members have been pushing us to ratify the agreement, they have failed to consider our demand to include provisions on transboundary illegal logging, which has been plaguing our country,' he said.

Legislator Nizar Dahlan of the Democracy Pioneer Star Party said that any measures to control haze should include efforts to combat illegal logging because 'they are two sides of the same coin'.

Since 1997, peat and forest fires in Indonesia's Sumatra and Borneo islands have triggered a choking haze billowing across the region to Singapore, Malaysia and parts of Thailand.

Meanwhile, dozens of mining companies could benefit from a decision to allow firms that previously held exploration permits in forest areas to develop mines, a top Indonesian official told Reuters yesterday.

The government issued a decree last month allowing mining companies to pay between 1.8 million rupiah (S$61,400) and 2.4 million rupiah per hectare for forest land used for roads, mine sites and waste dumps.

It applies to 13 mining companies that four years ago were allowed to resume operations in forest areas after proving that their projects were economically viable.

But Mr Simon Sembiring, director-general of mineral resources at the Energy and Mines Ministry, said that other mining companies, which had permits before a forestry law was issued in 1999, could also be eligible for similar permits.

Indonesia lawmakers set to reject ASEAN haze pact
Reuters 14 Mar 08;

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian lawmakers are set to reject a Southeast Asian pact designed to fight cross-border smoke caused by forests fires, a legislator from an environmental commission said on Friday.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations approved the Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002 and Indonesia, where most of the fires occur, is the only country that has not ratified it, drawing criticism from its neighbors affected by the annual haze.

The agreement calls for a regional coordinating centre to help mobilize resources to fight the fires, often triggered by slash-and-burn practices by farmers, timber and plantation companies.

Alvin Lie, a legislator from the National Mandate Party, said ratifying the pact would subject Indonesia to binding obligations, which include introducing legislation and measures to promote a zero-burning policy.

"The benefits of ratifying the pact are smaller compared to the obligations," Lie told Reuters. "The agreement is not subject to amendment so once we ratify it we're stuck."

Lie said legislators at an environmental commission aired their opposition to the pact during a hearing with Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban on Thursday and the House of Representatives was expected to formalize its rejection next week.

He said Indonesia had made great progress in curbing forest fires and did not need a regional haze pact.

Since 1997 peat and forest fires in Indonesia's Sumatra and Borneo islands have triggered a choking haze billowing across the region to Singapore, Malaysia and parts of Thailand.

The haze has made many people ill across a wide area of Southeast Asia and cost local economies billions of dollars and badly hit the tourism and airline sectors.

Lie also said Indonesia's neighbors were turning a blind eye to the problem of illegal logging in Indonesia.

"They are not showing a cooperative attitude even though they receive illegal timber from our country and now they are pressuring us on the haze issue," he said.

Indonesian bans the practice of clearing land by fire but prosecutions take time and few have stuck.

(Reporting by Ahmad Pathoni; Editing by Ed Davies)