The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsRegional haze casts pall on ASEAN’s influence
The return of haze underscores a sobering reality: while ASEAN has policies designed to combat it, the problem continues to occur.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
Haze shrouds the Kuala Lumpur skyline on Aug. 26 amid high levels of air pollution from regional wildfires. Indonesia has for weeks battled wildfires that have led to school closures and thousands of people requiring medical treatment, with smoke also reaching neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. (AFP/Arif Kartono)
I
n recent weeks, a thick shroud of smoke has enveloped some ASEAN states again. While the bloc has instituted some policies to mitigate its effects, enforcement and making them work effectively is critical.
Early this month, haze from forest and peatland fires in Indonesia drifted as far as the southern Philippines. Closer to the source, visibility at Supadio Airport in Pontianak fell to about 100 meters, preventing aircraft carrying Indonesia’s forestry minister from landing. Since August, the ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Center has activated its highest alert level, Level 3, after detecting hotspots across Sumatra and Kalimantan. Malaysia has asked Indonesia permission to conduct cloud seeding over Indonesian territory. Singapore has also issued daily haze advisories to help the public plan activities and events.
The pattern is familiar. For nearly three decades, ASEAN has built mechanisms to prevent, monitor and respond to haze, yet the problem continues to occur. ASEAN introduced the Regional Haze Action Plan in 1997, focusing on prevention, mitigation and monitoring. In 2002, it adopted the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP), the region’s first legally-binding agreement dedicated to the issue.
Since then, ASEAN has built a relatively comprehensive system for haze cooperation. The ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Centre (ASMC) monitors hotspots, weather conditions and smoke movement, while the AATHP provides a framework for joint responses and assistance when fires escalate.
The re-occurrence of smoke haze is an especially revealing test of ASEAN credibility because, unlike many of ASEAN’s other transboundary challenges, it is predominantly an intra-ASEAN problem. The countries where the fires start and the countries that breathe the smoke are, with few exceptions, the same member states.
This distinguishes haze from a challenge like the water security in the Mekong River. The river is shared by several ASEAN countries but flows from China, which is not an ASEAN member. China’s dam-building and water management decisions have major implications for downstream communities and ecosystems, limiting ASEAN’s influence over some of the river’s most consequential decisions.
If haze, unlike the Mekong, is a problem ASEAN’s own members largely cause and largely suffer, it raises an obvious question: why has the region struggled to address it through its own institutions?
