Indonesian Environment Ministry Seeking Passage Of Asean Haze Agreement

Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 21 Jan 11;

The Ministry of the Environment says it will push for Indonesia’s ratification of a transborder haze agreement that could see the country receive international help in fighting forest fires.

Arief Yuwono, the deputy minister for environmental damage control, said on Friday that his ministry would try once again to get the House of Representatives to ratify the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, which has already been signed by the other nine Asean nations.

“We’re preparing steps to ratify the Asean agreement on transboundary haze,” he said.

“It’s already been rejected once, but we’re trying to propose it again because we stand to benefit a lot from this agreement.”

The agreement was drawn up by the regional group in 2002 in response to the pollution caused by forest fires used to clear land in Sumatra and surrounding areas.

The pollution created a heavy haze that affected other countries in the region.

The worst of the haze came in the late ’90s. Thick smog drifted as far as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, costing an estimated $9 billion in losses to tourism, transportation and farming.

Indonesia is the only Asean nation that has not yet ratified the pact, with the House stating in 2008 that it threatened the country’s sovereignty.

But Arief said signing the agreement would bring benefits, such as allowing Indonesia to seek support from its neighbors in preventing forest fires.

“It’s also in our national interest, not just theirs, to tackle forest fires, because we’re affected by the haze too,” Arief said.

“It impacts our ability to meet our 26 percent emissions reduction target, and if forest fires get worse, we’ll need to make extra efforts to achieve our targets.” Satya Widya Yudha, a House legislator with the Golkar Party, agreed there were benefits and said he was in favor of ratifying the agreement, but on the condition that Indonesia had full control in handling its pollution.

“The House rejected ratification last time because we feared other countries interfering in our domestic issues. At that time we were also questioning Singapore’s dumping of its waste in our territory,” he said.

Government wants haze agreement ratified
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 22 Jan 11;

Indonesia, the 2011 ASEAN chair and the only country in the region that has not endorsed the haze agreement, has set a target to ratify the ASEAN haze pollution agreement this year.

Senior officials, including from the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Forestry Ministries, had intensified talks and targeted to ratify the agreement before Indonesia hosts the ASEAN summit this year.

The government had previously tried to seek House of Representatives approval to ratify the haze agreement, but the House rejected the proposal in 2008.

“We will try again,” Environment Ministry deputy minister for environmental damage control Arief Yuwono told reporters after the meeting held at the Foreign Ministry office on Friday.

Arief said the ratification was essential to help strengthen institutional coordination in Indonesia for dealing with prevention of forest fires.

“The cooperation with other ASEAN countries is important, including in forest fires and emergency situations facing the land,” he said. “For us, it would of course be comfortable to mobilize aid [from ASEAN countries] if there is a formal agreement.”

While refusing to approve the ratification in 2008, legislators argued that the draft bill should include illegal logging issues in efforts to reduce the exports of illicit wood, including to ASEAN countries.

Indonesia is the only country in ASEAN that has not ratified the agreement after the Philippines endorsed it last year.

Ten ASEAN countries adopted the trans-boundary haze agreement in 2002 obliging signatory countries to take proactive steps to stop haze pollution from land and forest fires within their territories through strict regulations, heat-seeking satellites and training for firefighters.

The delegation from Indonesia had so far acted as observers in the annual trans-boundary meeting to discuss land and forest fire prevention.

Indonesia will host a ministerial steering committee on trans-boundary haze this year with the first senior officials meeting to be held in March.

Legislator Satya W. Yudha hailed the government plan to ratify trans-boundary haze, but warned the motive should not only be because Jakarta would host the ASEAN summit.

“It is good. We will support it,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Satya warned the government that the ASEAN countries should respect Indonesian sovereignty with the control of aid coming to Jakarta under the hand of the Indonesian government.

“We hope ASEAN countries that have already ratified the trans-boundary haze would also stop dumping hazardous waste into Indonesian water,” he said.

Indonesia is the largest forest nation in the region with 120 million hectares of rainforest.

Forest fires have long been an annual event in Indonesia during the dry season, and have several times shifted haze pollution to Singapore and Malaysia.

The governments of Singapore and Malaysia protested the Indonesian administration over the haze pollution blanketing parts of the two countries last year.

Indonesia has signed bilateral deals with Singapore and Malaysia, with the two countries promising
to help Indonesia stop land and forest fires.

The government promised to cut the number of hotspots by 20 percent per year to meet Indonesia’s pledge to reduce its emissions by 26 percent by 2020.

Haze Pollution Treaty Would Open Up World of Opportunities, Ministry Insists
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 25 Jan 11;

Jakarta. The Environment Ministry is continuing to make its case for Indonesia to ratify a regional transborder haze agreement, arguing it could pave the way for more carbon trading projects in the country.

Sulistyowati, the minister’s deputy for mitigation and atmosphere protection, said on Monday that ratifying the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution would mean fewer wildfires and hence more forested area to leverage in carbon-trading negotiations.

“If we can prevent forests getting burned down, we can benefit from REDD [Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation] and CDM [Clean Development Mechanism] schemes,” she said.

REDD schemes essentially reward developing countries for not cutting down their forests, while the CDM allows developed countries to offset their emissions reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol by paying for reduction projects in developing countries.

The CDM also includes Afforestation and Reforestation methods aimed at replanting trees in forests that have been damaged for the past 50 years (Afforestation) and those damaged since 1989 (Reforestation).

“Indonesia has a huge potential to get CDM projects with the Afforestation and Reforestation methods if we can prevent fires,” Sulistyowati said.

“We conducted a study from 2004 to 2005 where we nominated seven candidate [CDM projects] but only had one approved by the government,” she said.

“The process was then stalled because of permit issues with the central government. So we don’t really know what happened to the proposal.”

Agus Sari, a carbon trading expert, said that while Indonesia could benefit from Afforestation and Reforestation projects, they were very complex and could end up being too difficult to implement here.

“Afforestation and Reforestation [projects] have their own definitions and none of them talks specifically about forest fires or the prevention of forest fires,” he said. “It would become too complicated [in the Indonesian context].”

He added that even without bringing in CDM projects, ratifying the haze agreement would have an immediate benefit to local communities.

The agreement was drawn up by the regional bloc in 2002 in response to the pollution caused by forest fires used to clear land, mainly in Sumatra.

The pollution created a heavy haze that affected other countries in the region.

The worst of the haze came in the late 1990s. Thick smog drifted as far as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, costing an estimated $9 billion in losses to tourism, transportation and farming.

Indonesia is the only Asean nation that has not yet ratified the pact, with the House stating in 2008 that it threatened the country’s sovereignty.