Clearing the air on haze – its root cause and challenges

SINGAPORE: Fires in Sumatra and the yearly haze problem can be drastically reduced in five years or less.

Global Forest Watch, an organisation that monitors forest activity, tells Channel NewsAsia this is possible through concerted efforts on the ground -- involving palm oil companies and law enforcement.

And all stakeholders -- from financial institutions to even consumers -- can do more to get the US$21b industry in Indonesia to adopt sustainable sourcing practices.

But it would seem palm oil markets in the region are not as committed to sustainability, perhaps put off by the associated costs.

The dry season begins in June and runs until October.

About 250km from Singapore, farmers on Sumatra island are getting ready to clear land traditionally -- by burning vegetation.

That could be the spark needed to ignite and spread fires onto adjacent plantations.

The winds that occur during the Southwest Monsoon could fan the smoke and its unhealthy particulates right towards Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia, as it had done for years, as seen during Singapore's worst bout of haze in June 2013.

Increasingly, the pressure is on large palm oil and pulp companies to put an end to such practices.

Nigel Sizer, director of Global Forest Watch (Forests Programme) at World Resources Institute, said: "About half of these fires are burning on land that's in the concessions of palm oil and pulp wood companies in Riau and across Sumatra.

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Clearing the air on haze - its root cause and challenges