Haze: Hard to wean Indonesian farmers off slashing and burning

It's still cheapest way to clear land for farming, causing haze in region
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Straits Times 16 Sep 11;

JAMBI: Farmers in the Indonesian province of Jambi are continuing the practice of clearing land by burning forests, setting off fires that have been raging for the past few weeks.

Despite local and international efforts to wean them off the traditional slash-and-burn practice - which is banned - it is the cheapest and easiest way to clear land for farming, and is also the main cause of the haze that recently enveloped parts of Singapore and Malaysia.

When The Straits Times visited the province on Sumatra island yesterday, the strong smell of burning vegetation hung in the air, and some residents could be seen going around with masks.

In Jambi city, the provincial capital, reports of respiratory ailments had almost quadrupled from 127 to 479 in the past two weeks.

But there were no fires to be seen. Intermittent showers in the past two days have helped to put out forest and plantation fires, bringing the count of hot spots in Jambi - which hit 88 last Thursday - to zero yesterday.

A hot spot is a fire covering at least 1ha that can be detected by satellite.

The heavy smoke over the area, however, bore testament to the size of the fires that had been burning here just last week. It was only because of the unseasonal heavy rain, that the province - and the rest of the region - enjoyed a temporary respite from the fires and resulting haze.

Fires in Jambi - 330km south of Singapore - and other Sumatra provinces are blamed for the haze that envelops Singapore and peninsular Malaysia each year.

This year, Jambi was one of the worst provinces hit by fires. Some 1,530ha of oil palm plantations and 420ha of forest area were destroyed in the past few weeks, according to its forestry agency.

Indonesian officials and weather forecasters, however, say the clear skies may not continue. The dry season here could last till early next month, and another dry spell could allow fires to be restarted.

Singapore's National Environment Agency said on its website that winds that have helped to blow away the haze are expected to continue to do so next week, but Singapore could still be affected by haze if there are fires in Sumatra.

Senior government weather forecaster Kurnianingsih, however, sought to ease concerns, telling The Straits Times yesterday: 'But we will not likely see a haze situation as intense as the one that just passed, because that was a result of an accumulation of hot spot activities that started in early August.'

The burning in Jambi suggests that efforts to wean farmers off clearing land using fire have not taken hold.

Singapore has tried to help through a $1 million collaboration with Jambi officials aiming to mitigate fires by teaching farmers zero-burning practices and training local officials to monitor hot spots.

Singapore now funds four air and weather monitoring stations that help to detect fires quickly. 'We have been using them and found them quite useful,' said a local forest protection agency official.

The Indonesian government has also started programmes to encourage aqua-culture, which does not require extensive forest clearing. And in the latest effort, Jambi's provincial government has been distributing equipment to turn unburnt tree logs into 'arang', a local version of charcoal that can be sold. 'But our problem is the funding,' said the official. 'Not every farmer gets this.'

But the authorities continue to struggle in their annual battle against the slashing and burning. Enforcing bans, officials say, is difficult because of the huge areas involved. And besides, poor farmers often have few other options when they need to clear land for agriculture. 'We're farmers,' said one Jambi resident. 'We can't hire tractors. Only corporations use tractors.'

For many, it's thus much easier - and cheaper - to just throw a match.

'It's a huge challenge because it's about people's economy,' said the senior Jambi forest protection agency official.

Some farmers do try to prevent the fires from spreading. One told The Straits Times that he digs ditches around his land and fills them with water before burning bushes and logs between them.

But this is still very risky, as Mr Mukri Priatna at the Indonesian Environmental Forum pointed out. A sudden and strong wind could spread the fire, he said.

'And these ditches can sometimes dry up unnoticed and lose their effectiveness as separators,' he said.

Until the next haze season, then
Straits Times Editorial 16 Sep 11;

SINGAPOREANS have grown accustomed to the sameness of ritual that comes with the haze season. Concerns are conveyed to the Indonesian authorities by Singapore and Malaysia, which unhappily are favoured in the direction of the ill wind bearing the smog and its acridity from burning forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Repeated offers are made to help put out forest fires, and satellite imagery on burning hotspots is shared. From the other side, there often comes a reminder that the suffering Indonesian people are affected the worst by the seasonal air pollution - and don't fussy neighbours overlook that.

Government officials in Jakarta, mindful of Asean camaraderie, may make polite noises about laws being enforced and provincial authorities doing all they can to wean farmers off old cultural practices of slash and burn to fertilise the soil for new plantings. (That is no political challenge: What about taking on the big plantation companies and pulp and paper mills denuding the land?) Sometimes, as happened last year, an addled junior minister could demand to know how anyone could be certain about the source of the haze as 'we haven't received official complaints from neighbours'. Meantime, environment ministers struggle to nudge Asean's biggest member along to be consistent in tackling an issue which is not just a matter of preserving the environment, but also about altering habits of localised subsistence economies far removed from the distant world of booming Jakarta.

And so, until next season. It is doubtful it does much good to press the point that, at some stage, transnational pollution spewed out with reckless disregard for neighbouring countries would subject an offending nation to international sanctions on grounds of damage to public health and sovereign economies. Treaty obligations under free trade agreements are another imponderable. But these are at best suppositions.

There is a better way. Indonesia is no longer regarded as an underachiever. The government is sensitive to how the world now perceives an Indonesia coming up in the world. It has sorted out democratisation and its institutions. Inward investments and consumer confidence are strong. It will be the next new member of the BRIC club of high-growth nations. Image building to fit the status would force the government to confront once and for all an issue which investors and international agencies would relate directly to the country's ability to tackle challenges. Rising powers which want to be taken seriously do not shrug off problems as beyond their control. They claim ownership and overcome them.