Why does the haze come back every year?

The country emits 6.5 times as much CO2 from degraded peatland as it does by burning fossil fuels every year, the report said.

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Last year the annual haze in Sumatra and Kalimantan caused respiratory diseases, a month-long school holiday and an airplane accident. The haze is a continuing smoky gift that has spread itself across parts of Indonesia and neighboring countries for more than two decades.

It's led to huge economic losses for the region and been blamed on both negligence and dry weather. Malaysia, Singapore and to a certain extent Thailand and Brunei Darussalam are all regularly affected by it.

Certainly one significant contributor to the problem is the clearing of land for palm oil plantations.

The government offers low-interest loans to plantation companies, in the hope that 1.5 million hectares of new plantations can be added to the country over the next five years. The availability of peatland is attractive for those wanting to clear land for palm oil.

Palm oil can be processed into alternative energy source biofuel, although currently technology only allows it to be used in small amounts mixed with conventional fuel.

Many producers of palm oil, the price of which increased by 35 percent between January and November 2006 after fuel prices rose, have blamed the haze on local villagers, pointing to their traditions of burning land to clear it, combined with the hot weather.

Peatland fires are harder to extinguish than forest blazes. And occasional rainfall does little to diminish to smog.

A study by the Netherlands-based Wetlands International and Delft Hydraulics revealed earlier this year that during the last few decades, emissions from drained or burned peatland in Indonesia have reached 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year.

This shows that Indonesia has contributed to almost a 10th of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.

The country emits 6.5 times as much CO2 from degraded peatland as it does by burning fossil fuels every year, the report said.

Aside from the increasing role of palm oil producers, bad planning and ineffective forest management has contributed to the months of fires and smog.

Critics say the expansion of palm oil plantation land has been unnecessary, an easy way out rather than an effort to maximize available land.

Indonesian Forum for The Environment executive director Chalid Muhammad said the government had issued too many forest utilization licenses.

"Fifteen million hectares of land in Indonesia are in dispute for various reasons, so they cannot be utilized. That explains why there are so many forest concessions issued," Chalid said.

The government's plan to empower both civilians and officials to monitor the land has proved difficult -- even the governor in charge of one of the world's greatest tropical forest centers has expressed frustration.

"Many officials only care about the investors and neglect the ecological implications. Issuances of forest permits are rarely accompanied by an environmental impact assessment," said Central Kalimantan governor Teras Narang.

"Palm oil is important as an alternative fuel source. However, diversity in plantations is better for Kalimantan. There should be more rubber plants, meranti, jeruntu, and others," he added.

As for handling the annual smog problem, the government has been reactionary rather than take preventive measures.

Efforts to induce rain through cloud stimulation and "water bombing" have been costly and ineffective, particularly given the large scope of the haze and inadequate facilities.

Walhi says there are 40,000 hotspots, areas that have generated heat across Indonesia for the past five years.

Moreover, Indonesia has limited aircraft suitable for tackling the issue, although though it is aiming to buy more. This year the government used two Hercules aircraft from the Air Force. A larger and much more effective water bomber costs about Rp 400 billion (US$44 million).

Law enforcement in the affected areas is notoriously poor, to the disgust of neighbors Malaysia and Singapore.

Some critics have called for stronger legal instruments, such as a presidential decree to enable the instant revocation of forest permits or lawsuits against the company if the people are found guilty, apart from stricter enforcement.

"The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is also ineffective because the current law cannot revoke a plantation company's permit for land use if it is found guilty," said Chalid.

The Roundtable, grouping palm oil companies, environmentalists and other energy companies, aims to certify companies that adhere to sustainable ecology.

Many of the arrested culprits have been insignificant scapegoats, as the big players easily bribe their way out.

Governor Teras suggested a faster process of examination and gathering of evidence. The current legal process, the governor said, is long, arduous and costly.

Further, monitoring agents such as regents, public figures and kampong heads, had not really become aware of the importance of eradicating the haze, he said.

"Many of the community leaders are authorized to act but lack the will, facilities and funds," Teras said, adding that officials needed a detailed map marking smog-sensitive areas.

Indonesia has not even signed the Transboundary Haze Agreement, which has been ratified by a number of other Southeast Asian countries. This is despite the willingness of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to allocate $50,000 to solving the problem from each country.

It's rather hard for Indonesians affected by the smog, let alone neighbors, to understand legislators' excuses that before signing, other regional environment problems should be handled -- except if locals and the elite of Java's major cities including Jakarta one day find themselves choking in smoke.

The costs incurred by the haze agreement are still seen to be a burden while, for instance, "Malaysia and Singapore have been accommodating and buying our smuggled logs," legislator and former environment minister Sonny Keraf said.

Neighbors are urging us to ratify the treaty to enable rapid deployment of assistance in event of fires.

Others say even if Indonesia doesn't ratify the agreement, ASEAN is reluctant to impose tough sanctions on Indonesia.

But nature can't wait for everyone to sort out priorities. Next year efforts to douse the smog could be even harder because of the forecast of a longer dry season, triggered by the El Ni¤o weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean.