GEORGE TOWN: Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) is calling on Asean member countries to help make the region free from the delibitating effects of the haze.
Its president Meenakshi Raman said the Malaysian government should lead efforts to tackle the source of the problem - forest fires in Indonesia - and put a stop to that permanently.
“We need to make a haze-free Asean a reality and not a pipe dream," she said today.
According to Meenakshi, there are several basic steps that Asean member countries must take to tackle the issue.
“First, there must be a clear understanding about the systemic causes of the forest fires, and the corporate activities which are largely responsible for them.”
She said effective action must then be taken to stop these unsustainable forestry and plantation activities, including in preventing the use of fire in land clearing activities.
Meenakshi said the Asean mechanism of cooperation must be stepped up and improved to be effective, including through the establishment of the Asean Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control (ACCT-HPC).
"Also, there must be willingness for Malaysia and other Asean countries to ensure that corporations owned by their citizens are not involved in destructive and unsustainable activities abroad.
Meenakshi said SAM also welcomed the move by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in reaching out to his Indonesian counterpart in addressing the increasing transboundary haze problem which is seriously affecting Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.
She hoped that urgent measures would be taken by the Indonesian authorities to halt the forest fires stemming from the republic, as monitoring data from the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) had shown that the majority of hotspots are seen in Kalimantan and Sumatera.
"The recurrence of the haze problem raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution which came into effect in 2014 and over the implementation of the ‘Roadmap on Asean Cooperation towards Transboundary Haze Pollution Control’. The Asean’s vision of a haze-free region by 2020 now seems like an impossible task.
"It has to be acknowledged that the Asean Agreement lacks enforcement mechanisms or instruments for dispute-resolution and is therefore rather weak and not effective enough.
It is premised mainly in promoting cooperation among the Asean member states and expects each country to undertake efforts at preventing forest fires in the respective countries, without infringing on the national sovereignty of a member state.
"Given its inherent weakness, much more effective measures are needed urgently, including in expediting the establishment and operationalisation of the ACCT-HPC in Indonesia to intensify further cooperation and action to combat the problems," she said.
Meenakshi added that since it was up to member states to ensure the prevention of forest fires in their respective countries, it was also vital to address why governments are not able to prevent the occurrence of forest fires.
Several research and reports, she noted, had shown that there were serious systemic governance issues in Indonesia in relation to the forestry and plantation development sectors.
Meenakshi said the governance framework for plantation development in Indonesia was complex, involving different levels of government, making central monitoring and enforcement a difficult challenge.
"Further, serious concerns have been raised by Indonesian civil society in relation to allegations of the lack of transparency in governance and existence of corruption in the forestry and plantation sectors.
"To compound the problem, plantation companies involved in monoculture plantations such as oil palm and pulp and paper, often fail to comply with Indonesian laws and resort to the use of fire in land clearing activities.
"Investigations must disclose the origins of these companies, because if Malaysian companies are also involved in such irresponsible actions, they must also be severely punished by our authorities. This should be in addition to actions taken by the Indonesian authorities on all companies responsible for the forest fires in Indonesia.
"Without acknowledging these facts, it is indeed a challenge for the Asean governments to ensure a haze-free vision in 2020. There must be regional recognition that large corporate oil palm, and pulp and paper plantations are causing not only deforestation but also forest fires in Indonesia," she pointed out.
Meenakshi said Indonesian civil society groups like Friends of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI) had also consistently linked such large fires to corporate plantations, stressing that it was the large corporations and not the small farmers who are the real culprits.
"This year, as early as Aug 10, the Jakarta Post had already reported Riau police had named a palm oil corporation as a forest fire suspect, while Reuters on Aug 29 reported that the Indonesian police were investigating palm oil companies over the fires.
"It is therefore important for us to stop the common false narrative that blames the fires largely on local farmers, where the cultivation of crops is on lands which are typically small."