Slash and burn in Southeast Asia

A NASA satellite image shows the extent of the smoke mist in Borneo on September 15, 2019

Smoke as a result of the slash and burn on September 11, 2019 in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur

The slash and burn is in Southeast Asia one in the Agriculture widespread land reclamation method. One of the critical side effects is a strong, regularly occurring air pollution . These events have a detrimental impact on the health and economic situation of Brunei , Indonesia , Malaysia , Singapore and, to a lesser extent, those of the Philippines , Thailand and Vietnam . The problem arises every year during the dry season , to varying degrees.

Cross-border smoke in Southeast Asia has been recorded since 1972.

In 2019, more than 800,000 people were affected by respiratory diseases as a result of smoke in Indonesia alone .

A peat fire near the Raja Musa Forest Reserve in Selangor , Malaysia (2013). The fires are below the surface where the peat is smoldering.

The slash and burn causes most of the haze in Indonesia, especially from the provinces of South Sumatra and Riau on the island of Sumatra , and Borneo . Burned land can be illegally sold at a higher price and eventually used for oil palm and pulpwood production. Incineration is also cheaper and faster compared to cutting and clearing by excavators and other machines.

causes

Most cases of haze are caused by fires in bogs in Sumatra and Borneo .

Undisturbed tropical rainforests are considered to be very fire-resistant, the rare fires only take place at exceptionally dry times.

A study completed in 2005 concluded that there is never a single predominant cause of fire at a particular location and that there are large differences between the causes of fire at different locations. The study identified the following direct and indirect causes:

• Direct causes of fire
  • Fire as a tool for clearing land
  • Fire as a weapon in land ownership or land use disputes
  • Unintentional or escaped fire
  • Fire associated with the depletion of natural resources
• Indirect causes of fire
  • Conflicts and competition over land ownership and use
  • Forest degrading practices
  • Economic incentives and deterrents
  • Population growth and migration
  • Inadequate fire fighting and fire management capacity

Fire as a clearing instrument

Fire is the cheapest and fastest way to clear forests in preparation for sowing. Fire is used to clear leftover plant matter from deforestation or old vegetation. Raking the plant matter into high piles and allowing it to decompose over time is expensive and slow. The heaps could harbor pests. Land clearing with machinery and chemicals can cost up to $ 200 per acre, while using fire costs US $ 5 per acre.

After a peat swamp forest has been cleared and drained, the peat soil is not yet suitable for agriculture because peat soil is poor in nutrients and acidic (pH 3 - 4). In order to make the soil suitable for agriculture, the pH needs to be neutralized and nutrients need to be added. Pests and plant diseases also need to be eliminated. One method is to use chemicals such as limestone as well as fertilizers and pesticides to neutralize the acidity. This method costs 30-40 million rupees per hectare. Alternatively, fire is used to clean up the plant material left over from logging. The fire kills pests, the resulting ash is used to fertilize the soil and neutralize acidity. This method costs 2 million rupees per hectare.

Land disputes

In Indonesia, the Basic Forestry Act grants the Ministry of Forestry authority over all areas designated as forest. Approximately 49% of the land (909,070 square kilometers) is covered by actual forest, although the government designates 69% of the land area (1,331,270 square kilometers) as forest. The land rights of traditional communities living on land classified as forest cannot be written down and are generally not recognized by the state. As a result, these communities do not really have the ability to enforce rules at the village level and exclude outsiders such as oil palm plantations, logging companies, residents of other villages, migrants, small loggers or transmigrants. Competing property claims in turn lead to land disputes. As the number of new, external actors grows, the likelihood that fire will be used as a weapon also increases.

Role of peat

Peat forms in water-soaked conditions in peat swamp forests such as this one in Raja Musa Forest Reserve, Selangor, Malaysia.

A peat bog is an area where organic matter such as leaves and twigs has accumulated under water-saturated conditions for the past 10,000 years. This layer of organic material, called peat , can be up to 20 m deep. Indonesia has 265,500 km² of bogs, which make up 13.9% of its land area. Malaysia also has a sizeable peat area with 26,685 km² or 8.1% of its land area.

Although originally a wetland ecosystem, much of the peat has been drained for human activities such as agriculture, forestry and urban development. A report published in 2011 said that more than 30% of peat swamp forests had been turned into agricultural land and another 30% had been cut down or degraded in the past 20 to 30 years. Excessive drainage of the peat will cause the top layer of the peat to dry out. Because of its high carbon content, dry peat is extremely sensitive to fire, especially in the dry season.

Studies have shown that peat fires are a major contributor to haze. In 2009, around 40% of the fires in the peninsular part of Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra and Java were discovered in peat areas, although they only covered 10% of the land area examined. The concentration of sulfur in the rain that fell over Singapore in 1997 correlated with the PM _2.5 concentration, which can be attributed to sulfur emissions from peat fires.

Effects

Damage caused by slash and burn can be traced back to two causes: the slash and burn itself and the forest fires it triggered. Either of the two factors can cause a severe disruption of people's life and affect people's health. Overall, the recurrent slash and burn incidents have adversely affected the region's economy and created tension between governments of affected countries.

Fire damage

The slash and burn that causes fire can cause a wide variety of damage both within a country and across borders. This includes the loss of direct and indirect benefits from the forest, wood, agricultural products and biodiversity. The fires also add significant cost to fire fighting and carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Damage from haze

The damage caused directly by haze includes acute damage to health and the loss of tourism during the slash and burn season. The haze leads to losses in industrial production, losses at airlines, a decline in fishing and entails costs for hail control. In addition, severe foggy weather can lead to long-term health problems, reduced crop productivity, reduced aesthetic value, countermeasure expenses, accidents, deaths, evacuations and loss of confidence among foreign investors.

Effects of haze on health

The effects of haze on health are mainly caused by the irritating effects of fine haze particles on the nose, throat, airways, skin and eyes. There are individual differences in sensitivity to air pollution. However, it is likely that people with health problems such as asthma, chronic lung disease, chronic sinusitis and skin allergies will be more affected by the haze and experience more severe symptoms. Children and the elderly are more likely to be affected. For some, physical activity can make symptoms worse.

Suggested solutions

The solutions below were provided by Dennis et al. proposed to address the direct and indirect causes of fires leading to haze.

Reducing the use of fire as a means of clearing land

Indonesian law prohibits the use of fire to clear land for any agriculture. However, little is being put into practice. Many companies have also argued that the low frequency of significant illegal fire penalties makes not doing such fires impractical and bad for competition.

Solving land use and land ownership issues

Research shows that the leading cause of fires was related to competition and controversial land use and ownership. Land use decisions made by central government agencies often overlap with local government concession boundaries and indigenous communities' territories. Regional reforms are needed to resolve resource conflicts and provide opportunities for regional government to align decisions with local and traditional institutions. Regional reforms should also ensure that land and resource allocations and decisions at all levels are consistent with the physical characteristics of the site, with fire risks being significantly incorporated. However, Indonesia's legacy of inaccurate maps, overlapping borders and a lack of expertise will make this a difficult task.

Reducing forest degrading practices

Practices that improve land management and measures that restore the ecological integrity of native forests are important in reducing recurring fires. Encouraging the involvement of the general public in such renovation efforts is critical to their success in reducing fire risks.

Build institutional capacity to prevent and extinguish fires

The Kalimantan and Sumatra fires highlight the need to develop fire management systems that address the problems of specific areas. Sufficient resources must be made available to improve fire management in regions that need them and to recognize the different needs of the regions and the people living there.

Remote sensing, digital cartography and direct communication tools can help predict, discover and resolve potential fire crises. However, such technology should be widely accessible, widely used, and transparently reviewed before it can be effective in improving fire management in remote areas.

Build economic deterrents and incentives

In addition to effective prison sentences and fines for illegal fires and liability for fire damage, some analysts see this policy as having potential for economic policy reforms and market incentives. A combination of the use of eco-labels and international trade restrictions could limit the markets for goods which, when manufactured, create the risk of major fires. The state can also grant tax breaks to help firms invest in fire-fighting.

Individual evidence

1. Jump up ↑ Regional Haze Action Plan . Haze Action Online. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
2. ↑ Why is South-East Asia's annual haze so hard to deal with? In: The Economist . July 8, 2013, accessed June 28, 2014 . 
3. ↑ Lee Min Kok: Haze in Singapore: A problem dating back 40 years. In: The Straits Times . October 2, 2015, accessed September 30, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Nearly 900,000 Indonesians suffer breathing issues due to haze. In: South China Morning Post . September 24, 2019, accessed on September 28, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Nicola Smith: Indonesian skies glow blood red from forest fires and toxic haze. In: The Telegraph. September 23, 2019, accessed on September 28, 2019 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Minister blasts execs of firm that denied burning forest. In: The Straits Times . October 13, 2015, accessed October 13, 2015 . 
7. ↑ What causes South East Asia's haze? . BBC News . September 16, 2015. Archived from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
8. ↑ Southeast Asia's haze: what's behind the annual outbreaks? In: The Straits Times . September 17, 2015, accessed September 26, 2015 . 
9. ↑ David Fogarty: Lucrative illegal market for crop country a key cause of fires: Researcher . In: The Straits Times . Archived from the original on September 28, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
10. ^ A. Heil, Goldammer, JG: Smoke-haze pollution: a review of the 1997 episode in Southeast Asia . In: Regional Environmental Change . 2, No. 1, August 1, 2001, pp. 24-37. doi : 10.1007 / s101130100021 .
11. ↑ Guide to the #haze in infographics . Retrieved September 21, 2015.
12. ↑ ^{a b} Jukka Miettinen, Shi, Chenghua, Liew, Soo Chin: Influence of peatland and land cover distribution on fire regimes in insular Southeast Asia . In: Regional Environmental Change . 11, No. 1, June 17, 2010, pp. 191-201. doi : 10.1007 / s10113-010-0131-7 .
13. ↑ ^{a b} Rona A. Dennis: Fire, People and Pixels: Linking Social Science and Remote Sensing to Understand Underlying Causes and Impacts of Fires in Indonesia . In: Human Ecology . 33, No. 4, August 2005, pp. 465-504. doi : 10.1007 / s10745-005-5156-z .
14. ↑ Helena Varkkey: patronage politics, plantation fires and transboundary haze . In: Environmental Hazards . 12, No. 3-4, September, pp. 200-217. doi : 10.1080 / 17477891.2012.759524 .
15. ^ Infographic (in Indonesian) . Tempo.co. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
16. ^ Property Rights & Resource Governance, Indonesia . USAID. Archived from the original on January 12, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
17. ↑ Reuben Carder: Indonesian villagers think their land tenure is stronger than it actually is - study . CIFOR. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
18. ↑ Carol Colfer, Resosudarmo, Ida Aju Pradnja: "Ten propositions to explain Kalimantan's fires" in Which way forward? . Resources for the Future, Washington, DC 2002, ISBN 1-891853-45-7 , p. 315.
19. ^ Hans Joosten: The Global Peatland CO2 Picture: peatland status and drainage related emissions in all countries of the world . Wetlands International, 2009. Archived from the original on April 21, 2014 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
20. ↑ peatlands in Southeast Asia: A profile . ASEAN Secretariat and Global Environment Center, 2011.
21. ^ Two years of aerosol pollution monitoring in Singapore: a review . In: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms . 150, No. 1-4, 1999, pp. 457-464. doi : 10.1016 / S0168-583X (98) 01053-2 .
22. ^ ^{A b} edited by David Glover & Timothy Jessup: Indonesia's fires and haze the cost of catastrophe , Reprint 2006 with update .. Edition, International Development Research Center, Ottawa 2006, ISBN 1-55250-332-1 .
23. ^ Health Effects Of Haze . Ministry of Health Singapore. Archived from the original on July 27, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 11, 2014.