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Kolette Lim

A potentially dangerous haze season looms for Southeast Asia, as rising energy and fertiliser costs threaten to weaken fire-prevention efforts just as extreme weather patterns raise the risk of forest and land blazes.
Analysts warn that agricultural companies facing pressure from higher production costs may cut corners on sustainable land-clearing practices, including by using fire instead of machinery.
The warning comes as the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) issued a rare “red alert” for Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in its latest haze outlook, signalling a high risk of severe transboundary haze.
While weather conditions such as El Nino, a longer dry season and conditions in the Indian Ocean posed an immediate threat, pressure on planters threatened to compound the haze problem in the longer run, the report warned.
At the launch of the findings on Wednesday, SIIA chairman Simon Tay said energy disruption caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran war had raised production costs for planters by about 20 to 30 per cent.
“They will face pressures to cut costs elsewhere, and this might be the use of fire, rather than the use of machinery to clear land,” he said.
Demand for palm oil as a biofuel feedstock was also likely to rise as countries grappled with fuel shortages, Tay added.
“It’s manageable for now, but it’s a medium-term risk that there’ll be more demand for production.”

Felicia Liu, a lecturer in sustainability at the University of York, said economic strain could weaken safeguards against forest fires, as governments and companies face greater temptation to “cut corners” on environmental protection.
That could mean weaker enforcement and more illegal land clearance in pursuit of short-term economic gains, she said.
This year’s conditions – combining the regional dry season, El Nino and an Indian Ocean weather pattern – would provide a “genuine stress test” for fire prevention and enforcement measures, Liu added.
Will Indonesia’s crackdown work?
The growing haze threat has put renewed focus on Indonesia, the region’s largest palm oil producer and a key source of past transboundary haze episodes.
Haze has long been a recurring problem in Southeast Asia, often traced to forest and land fires in Sumatra and Borneo during dry spells. Many of these fires have been linked to slash-and-burn practices used by farmers and plantation owners to clear land for agriculture.
Jakarta has shown greater political commitment to preventing fires in recent years, but the coming dry season will test whether those measures can hold under economic pressure, according to analysts.
President Prabowo Subianto has stepped up regulatory oversight of Indonesia’s forests since taking office, including by launching a task force to crack down on illegal activities and investigate environmental violations.
Jakarta last week also reactivated its Forest and Land Fire Coordination Desk, which is responsible for strengthening inter-agency coordination in tackling fires. The desk was disbanded last year after forest and land fires in the country were deemed to be under control.

Tay said the moves by the Prabowo administration showed political will and signalled that Jakarta was “taking the issue seriously”.
But he warned that the high cost of fire prevention remained a major concern, with Indonesia and other countries facing budget pressures.
“Fire-management budgets are quite big-ticket items, especially things like cloud seeding,” he said.
Helena Varkkey, an associate professor of political ecology at Universiti Malaya, said stronger oversight and harsher penalties could help push large companies to comply with sustainable practices, as any breach could affect their global trade and operations.
But the same deterrence might not apply to mid-sized and smaller players as they were typically less visible and subject to less international scrutiny, she said.
The SIIA report also noted that Indonesia’s new move to centralise exports of certain commodities under a unit of the state-owned sovereign wealth fund Danantara could give the government greater oversight of the sector.
But Varkkey warned that additional requirements under the single-gate export system could raise operational costs for planters and influence decisions on land-clearing and land management, increasing the risk of fires.

‘Haze doesn’t respect borders’
Asean has made progress in building regional mechanisms to combat transboundary haze, but analysts warn that more funding and stronger accountability are needed.
In April, the Asean Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control officially opened in Jakarta. The centre is aimed at improving regional coordination in responding to haze.
On Thursday, representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also met in Laos to discuss the haze outlook and initiatives to build regional capacity to tackle the problem.
Tay urged Asean governments to commit more financing, saying current funding remained “quite small”.
“If we want to see good policies being made, there is a cost,” he said.
Liu said stronger domestic and regional laws were needed to hold private companies accountable for burning.
She noted that Singapore had enacted the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, allowing it to punish those who contributed to haze pollution in the city state regardless of where the burning took place.
“But one country’s legislation cannot solve a regional problem, especially when enforcing it against foreign companies is legally and diplomatically challenging,” Liu said.
“Haze doesn’t respect national borders, so accountability can’t stop at them either.”


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Southeast Asia’s ‘red alert’ haze fight faces economic test

A police officer sprays water in a bid to extinguish a fire razing through a peatland field in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, Indonesia, in July last year. Photo: AP

Palm fruit loaded onto a truck at a palm oil plantation in Polewali Mandar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo: AP

Firefighters working at the scene of a fire at a peatland forest converted into palm oil plantations in Meulaboh, Aceh, Indonesia, last year. Photo: AFP

Kuala Lumpur shrouded by haze in October 2023. Asean members are working to boost regional capacity to tackle haze. Photo: Reuters

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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left) during a meeting at the Russia-Asean Summit in Kazan on Wednesday. Anwar says Moscow has provided assurances to Malaysia on petrol, oil and gas supplies. Photo: EPA

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Indonesia has come under renewed attention after President Prabowo Subianto committed to cracking down on agriculture-linked fires


Indonesia has come under renewed attention after President Prabowo Subianto committed to cracking down on agriculture-linked fires.


Southeast Asia’s ‘red alert’ haze fight faces economic test

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Indonesia has come under renewed attention after President Prabowo Subianto committed to cracking down on agriculture-linked fires

Indonesia has come under renewed attention after President Prabowo Subianto committed to cracking down on agriculture-linked fires