Plantation land management, fires and haze in southeast Asia

摘要

Forest fires and its resulting haze has been a recurring transboundary environmental problem inudSoutheast Asia. This research paper shows the strong correlation between the opening of plantation landudin Indonesia and Malaysia and fires that cause haze. It argues that commercial plantations contributeudsignificantly more to open burning fires than small-scale slash-and-burn farmers. It shows that economicudmotivation and governmental encouragement has motivated commercial plantations, especially for oiludpalm, to open land on fire-prone peatland and old cropland, producing smoke that often travels acrossudborders. This has contributed to and exacerbated the transboundary haze problem in the region. Thisudpaper discusses two types of land use change often employed in Indonesia, and to a lesser extentudMalaysia, for conversion into oil palm plantations, and how they are linked with increase in fires:udconversions of pristine peatlands, and of degraded logged-over forests and old cropland.