Indonesia was frank on steps taken over forest fires, Asean chair says

Philippines Foreign Minister Theresa Lazaro stated on Sunday that Indonesia was very open about the measures it had implemented to tackle forest fires. On Friday, a report revealed that thousands of hectares of land, primarily from palm oil and pulpwood concessions owned by major corporations, were burned during Indonesia's most severe fire season in recent years.

This fire season exacerbated respiratory problems in the region and triggered air pollution alerts and school closures. Emissions from the fires reached three times the usual seasonal average. According to a joint study by Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and geomonitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, 2.88 million hectares of land were affected by fires from January to October this year.

This destruction was caused by intense El Nino weather conditions, extreme heat, and the clearing of forests for industrial-scale palm oil and pulpwood plantations. Another report, citing scientists, highlighted that the devastating wildfires that engulfed large portions of Indonesia between August and October were significantly worsened by record-breaking heat driven by human-induced climate change.

The report by climate research group World Weather Attribution noted that while a very strong El Nino was the primary reason for the unprecedentedly low rainfall across Indonesia from July, human-induced climate change added around 1.6 degrees Celsius of additional heat to the fire season. Researcher Theodore Keeping, from Imperial College London, explained that the conditions experienced in 2023 would not have occurred in a world without human contributions to climate change, even with the exceptional El Nino event.