Introduction
Haze is an atmospheric phenomenon where smoke, dust, and the other dry particles obscure clarity of the sky. The sources for haze particles are industry, traffic, wildfires, and farming (cultivating in the dry weather). Haze regularly occurs when smoke and dust particles gather in relatively dry air. The industrial pollution can cause dense haze that is called smog. When the weather conditions block dispersal of the smoke as well as other contaminants, they concentrate and form a low hanging shroud, which impairs visibility and may turn into a respiratory health threat. Since the year 1991, haze has actually been a predominantly serious problem in Southeast Asia.
The Transboundary Haze Pollution (THP) is essentially an acute and long-lasting environmental problem affecting Indonesia as well as Southeast Asia. The Indonesian forest fires have covered the area in 1991, 1994, 1997-1998, 2006-2007, and 2009, bringing about damage to health of humans, animals, and plants. It was caused by the continued uncontrolled burning from the “slash and burn” ploughing in Indonesia, and affected a number of countries in Southeast Asia region and past such as Singapore, southern Thailand, Malaysia, and as far as Saipan (Abdullah, 2002). The reason why it is called Transboundary haze is that it originated from Indonesia and has caused damage in the mentioned countries’ environment through crossing the boarders by air. The local sources of pollution partly led to increased toxicity, specifically in the high pollution areas like oil refineries, ports, and dense town areas. Therefore, it is responsible for large economic, environmental, and health costs in Indonesia and its neighboring countries.
In dealing with this major problem that is responsible for economic, health and environmental costs in the entire region, the governments of the affected nations have tried to solve it by formulating various policies, but the problem lies with some countries lack of seriousness in implementing these policies that are believed will deal with this problem appropriately. It is argued that Indonesia has not been serious in its efforts to end this recurring and irritating problem (Craig, 2011). In fact, the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is determined to end this problem in his second term in office, as he was unsuccessful during his first term in office. However, he has a difficult task to convince both the regional and global community and the Indonesian citizens as well that he is fully committed to deal with this regular and irritating problem. The difficult question that remains unanswered is the steps that the President needs to take to deal with this problem given that in his first term he was unsuccessful. As a result, this paper focuses on the strategy solutions that the President needs to employ in dealing with this issue.
Reason
The Indonesian government under the leadership of President Suharto and the sitting president Yudhoyono has formulated a number of domestic policies to combat this problem, but they have been less effective due to the corruption within and outside the government. In fact, Indonesia has been ranked 143rd out of 180 nations in its Corruption Perceptions Index. This therefore makes it difficult for Indonesia to implement the policies effectively. It is worrying to note that even the government politicians and officials have been the major reason why the government has been unable to deal with this pollution problem domestically and to ratify the ASEAN agreement on this problem (ASEAN Secretariat, 2009). Therefore, the internal socio-political dynamics in Indonesia is the main reason why the Indonesian government has been unsuccessful in dealing with this problem domestically and in ratifying the ASEAN agreement.
Situation
This environmental problem has continued to exist in spite of the Indonesian government attempts to formulate some national and international policies such as pre-1997 policies, 1997-1998 policies, decentralization and regional and international initiatives to deal with it. The main challenge has actually been in implementing the formulated policies. For instance, the Suharto government introduced various policies that added to the environmental pressures. Selective cutting was one of these policies. This policy assumed a 35-year regeneration cycle for the felled trees. However, the concessions that were handed out were usually for 20 years, thus eliminating any incentives for the sustainable forestry (Chasek, 2001). The policy encouraged the loggers to fell most valuable trees and in the process destroyed others. Therefore, instead of solving the problem this further contributed to this problem.
Additionally, the Indonesian government has long encouraged peat swamps drainage since they create significant fire potential. The government encouraged this to increase the agricultural production. A government regulation was actually implemented in 1992 to delineate all the peat swamp areas as regions that are protected. Nonetheless, the regulation failed to overrule the agricultural guidelines by the central government. These agricultural guidelines stipulate that regions with up to seventy-six cm deep peat are appropriate for conversion to the agriculture.
In 2002 an environmental agreement, the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution was established between all the ASEAN nations to lessen the pollution caused by haze in Southeast Asia. This agreement identifies that the Transboundary haze pollution that result from forest fires and /or land should be mitigated by international cooperation and concerted national efforts. Specifically, this agreement is principally a reaction to the Transboundary haze pollution originating from Indonesia. All the Asian countries as of 2013 have ratified this agreement except Indonesia. However, Indonesia hopes to ratify this agreement by 2015. Some ASEAN countries are not satisfied with Indonesia response to the Transboundary Haze pollution. For instance, Singapore and Malaysia have criticized how Indonesia has handled this issue. They have urged the latter to ratify the agreement (Lin, Rajan, & University of Adelaide, 2000).
Therefore, the regional efforts by ASEAN to resolve this problem have essentially been facing rigid challenges due to lack of cooperation and bindings from all the parties concerned. Indonesia as the host of Transboundary Haze Pollution has been very reluctant to implement agreements due to the internal socio-political political dynamics that it faces. Moreover, the non-ratification of ATHP mindset of Indonesia has actually been disrupting the effective regional cooperation from the Asian countries in this particular issue. The lack of the international compliance, monitoring, and inspection in ATHP is the other difficulty that ASEAN countries has been facing in their efforts to deal with this recurring problem (Nguitragool, 2011).
Solutions
It is argued that sustainability of the environment is a deep-rooted eco-political concern of the development strategy in the current globalized world. Despite the encouraging economic growth, the Transboundary Haze Pollution is actually incurring serious menace to the environments in the South East Asian Nations (Atkinson, Dietz, and Neumayer, 2007). Indonesian, as the host of this problem needs to improve in its strategies to deal with this irritating problem. Therefore, as the environmental adviser to the Indonesian president, I believe suitable strategy solutions exist and that if fully implemented will be very effective in tackling this key concern. One of the solutions that the president have to use in fighting this key problem is to ensure that his government employs policies that will ensure that the environment is protected by the three defining goals of ecological transformations. These goals include sustainable scale, fair distribution, and efficient allocation.
A sustainable scale strategy is essentially an approach to solve any unprecedented global challenge that we face and the ecological challenges yet unforeseen. Sustainable scale is among the three defining goals of the ecological transformations (Biermann et al., 2012). In terms of this defining goal, the President to formulate and implement policies in the country that recognize that there exist natural limits to the global ecosystem. The Transboundary Haze Pollution has been contributed by the development activities in Indonesia that instead of being ecologically sustainable degrade the environment.
Thus, the president needs to use his authority to influence the policy makers to formulate and implement policies that will ensure that the development activities that Indonesian citizens engage in are ecologically sustainable. The implementation of these policies will ensure that the activities that people engage in are not harmful to the environment. These policies will also need to put tough measures to the corrupt government officials and those who engage in illegal activities like felling trees that directly result to the problem of Transboundary haze Problem.
Fair distribution of the environmental burdens and benefits is the other key area that the president needs to formulate and implement policies. These policies will ensure that there is environmental justice (Chasek, 2001). Employing policies in fair distribution will ensure that there is fair treatment as well as meaningful involvement of all the individuals in protecting the environment regardless of color, race, and income. As already mentioned, the fight against the Transboundary Haze problem has been largely unsuccessful in Indonesia due to the corruption within the Indonesian government. The government officials have been misusing their powers and this is what has made the country be unsuccessful in dealing with this issue. It is worrying to note that only the common citizens suffer the effects of the environmental damage that are caused by these greed politicians and government officials.
As a result, the president has to use his authority to influence the policy makers to formulate tough policies that will severely punish the officials and politicians who abuse their powers through engaging in corruption that result in only the common and innocent citizens suffer from effects of Transboundary Haze pollution. If the government is going to formulate and implement these policies there will be a fair distribution of the Transboundary Haze pollution burdens to all the citizens and this is very important, as all people will suffer and as a result, they will stop engaging in activities that cause this problem. In addition, this will ensure that there is environmental justice in Indonesia and its environments. In terms of efficient allocation, the President to make sure that his government also formulate and implement policies that will ensure that there is efficient allocation of natural resources. This is important, as it will ensure that people do not degrade the environment through greediness. The policies will help the government to deal with this key issue.
Besides policy formulation and implementation in the three defining goals of ecological transformations, the president must introduce administrative controls and legislation applicable to both private and public conduct in accordance with the International Law Commission (Lin, Rajan, & University of Adelaide, 2000). These administrative controls legislation will be capable to minimize or prevent the risks caused by the Transboundary pollution. By introducing these administrative controls sand legislation, the Indonesian government will have engaged in the international cooperation in facing this problem. Therefore, Due to the effects of this problem, the President needs to put the necessary measures that will hasten the ratification of the ASEAN agreement.
As already mentioned, Indonesia is the host of this environmental problem. What irritate the neighboring countries most are its unsuccessful efforts in dealing with this problem and lack of intensive efforts to ratify the ASEAN agreement. This continues to harm the neighboring countries. For this reason, the president needs to contribute additional Haze fund that despite being used to curb this environmental problem will be used to compensate these countries for the losses they incur because of his country failure to deal with the haze problem. Given the amount of the carbon emissions from the peat fires, the Indonesian government should thus consider supporting fully the ASEAN agreement implementation through contributing extra funds to the haze fund (Lin, Rajan, & University of Adelaide, 2000). This solution will make it fair since Indonesia will spend more in curbing the problem and on top of this, the additional amount contributed will be used to compensate the suffering countries. The importance of this financial solution is that it will save Indonesia from being heavily taxed and punished by the ASEAN community council.
Conclusion
References
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