Stronger measures needed to halt forest fires: Balakrishnan

Devianti Faridz Channel NewsAsia 5 May 14;

SINGAPORE: There is an urgent need for governments, non-governmental organisations and local communities to collaborate, insist on transparency, expedite investigations and prosecute those responsible for forest fires, said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan.

He said this is why Singapore has drafted legislation that will impose criminal and civil liabilities on companies causing transboundary haze.

Dr Balakrishnan made that point in his speech at the Forests Asia Summit in Jakarta on Monday.

The root of the problem is misaligned commercial interests, he noted, with companies burning forests for short-term profits.

"The main victims are the locals living on adjacent lands," Dr Balakrishnan added.

"The same companies causing the problem are not being made to pay for the damage they cause to the people most affected."

He urged governments to take stronger measures against companies found responsible for destroying the environment, including those behind the illegal burning of agricultural land.

Dr Balakrishnan said that halting development is impossible, and that people have the right to jobs despite the threat of climate change.

But he said this means regional governments need to find solutions that allow for sustainable economic development.

Dr Balakrishnan said: "There is therefore an urgent need for governments, for NGOs and for local communities to insist on transparency, to collaborate more effectively, to pursue investigations and to prosecute those responsible."

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has also echoed these sentiments and warned Southeast Asia to stay clear of a self-destructing path of development.

President Yudhoyono encouraged Southeast Asian governments, organizations and civil society to continue developing a regional strategy to promote a low-carbon economy.

Dr Yudhoyono has acknowledged that the Riau forest fires were a "major disaster" and has committed to the development of a unified map of land use which will help mitigate deforestation, said Dr Balakrishnan.

- CNA/nd/ir

Urgent need for quick action on haze management, says Balakrishnan
Today Online 6 May 14;

SINGAPORE — There is an urgent need for governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local communities to work together and insist on transparency, expedite investigations and prosecute those responsible for forest fires, said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan.

Despite South-east Asia experiencing one of the worst episodes of haze last year — which had “brutal” impact on the economy, livelihoods, people’s health and the environment — the fire-burning season began even earlier this year, said Dr Balakrishnan, who was speaking at the Forests Asia Summit in Jakarta yesterday.

Last month, Dr Balakrishan had expressed frustration at the unwillingness of countries — among them Indonesia and Malaysia — to share the land use and concession maps needed for ASEAN’s haze monitoring system to work. The system aims to identify responsible parties and the causes of regional haze.

Yesterday, he stressed that it was important to remember that while the haze affected Singapore, there are far more citizens in Indonesia and Malaysia who were affected.

“Businesses also suffered losses and workers who work at worksites and even wafer fab (plants) were affected because the air in the plants was contaminated. Airports were closed and we all know that in fact, the external cost of haze far exceeded the short-term profits that the companies would have gained,” he said.

He also pointed out the irony of climate change negotiators running up large carbon footprints jetting off all over the world to engage in talks.

“I find it ironic that we argue about shaving a few percentage points in the international commitments, but yet right here in our neighbourhood, we are releasing such copious amounts of carbon dioxide,” he said.

In the meantime, while companies responsible for industrial-scale deforestation are not liable to pay for the damage that they cause to the external environment, the larger economy and the people are most affected by the hardships, he added.

It is impractical to call for a halt to development, but companies and other stakeholders can all operate in a more transparent way.

“Unilever has committed that it will track the source of its palm oil, all the way down to its plantations and therefore sends a message that it wants its sources to be derived from sustainable practices,” he said.

NGOs also play an important role. In a day and age where satellite photos are made available almost real-time, air quality sensors are always on, and with easy Web access, “we got to turn those eyes and build a system of transparency which makes people accountable for their actions”, Dr Balakrishnan said.

At the summit, Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose term ends this year, called on his successor to continue with Indonesia’s moratorium on granting forest concessions. The move, he said, has managed to reduced an estimated 211 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, from what would have been the case if it was business as usual.

Singaporean Minister: Economic interests causing ‘environmental vandalism’
Bruno Vander Velde on the CIFOR blog Forest News 6 May 14;

Editor’s Note: Minister Balakrishnan’s speech can be watched in its entirety, above. His address begins at the 20:14 mark.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Short-term economic interests in Southeast Asia are driving “environmental vandalism,” Singapore’s top environmental official said Monday.

Vivian Balakrishnan, the Singaporean Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, spoke in direct terms about the causes and effects of deforestation in the region, urging greater transparency, stronger law enforcement and stricter penalties for activities related to deforestation.

“We have a problem,” he said. “The root of this problem is misaligned commercial interests.”

Balakrishnan spoke to nearly 2,000 attendees at the Forests Asia Summit in Jakarta, minutes after the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, delivered the keynote address. Relations between Singapore and Indonesia were strained last June when haze from peat fires in Sumatra drifted into Singapore, causing its worst air pollution on record.

But he also acknowledged the wider effects of continued deforestation on the climate.

“Even as we clear forests because we need more land for agriculture, ultimately this is self-defeating, because climate change progresses and sea levels rise,” he said. “Nature will take revenge on us.

“If we contuinue on this trajectory, all of us are in trouble.”