Is this the year’s worst environmental crisis?

Forest fires have cost the Indonesian economy $16bn this year – twice as much as the amount spent on rebuilding Aceh after the 2004 tsunami, according to the World Bank.

Fires caused by the illegal clearance of forests and peat lands to make way for palm oil and other plantations have been raging this year. They have been causing more emissions on a daily basis than the entire US economy.

The result has been an environmental and humanitarian crisis. Tens of millions of Indonesians across the archipelago, along with citizens from neighboring countries, are suffering from the smoke and haze. The public health crisis alone is the worst that Indonesia has experienced since the tsunami in 2004, with a cost to the economy that is estimated at some $16bn – more than double the $7bn spent rebuilding Aceh after the tsunami and equivalent to 1.9% of predicted GDP this year, the World Bank said.

 

The Government of Indonesia has taken a number of unprecedented steps to confront the immediate crisis, which can be viewed as three distinct elements:

1. Immediate moratorium on further peat and forest clearance
2. Full accountability for anyone found to be clearing
3. Initiate a major process to restore peat lands, block drainage canals to allow wetlands to replenish

This is tackling the root cause of the problem and hopefully creating conditions to never allow it to happen again. President Widodo is taking proactive steps to tackle a legacy that dates back over 20 years, to a time when land use licences were routinely issued for production that they were completely unsuited for.

The necessity – and opportunity – for bold leadership is clear. reforestation in other areas of the world, such as Brazil, has had the triple bonus of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving agricultural productivity and helping food security.

The world badly needs more of these success stories, in the year that leaders from around the world will gather in Paris to achieve what everyone hopes will be a historical agreement on tackling climate change.

Have you read?

How can we make palm oil more sustainable?
Why Indonesia really is a new power
Is climate change about to claim its first cities?

 

Author: Oliver Cann is Director of Media Relations at the World Economic Forum

Image: Indonesian forest fires that have caused choking smoke to drift across Southeast Asia are spreading to new areas and are unlikely to be put out until next year, experts say. REUTERS/Nova Wahyudi/Antara Foto