Indonesia Forest Fires:

Transboundary Haze Pollution

1997-2017

Kartika Dewanti M. P. (15/377138/HK/20287)

Wan Shafira (15/377132/HK/20281)
Fanny Nafisah H. (16/397622/HK/20944)
Clarissa Chandra (16/395966/HK/20858)
Ignatius Sadhu (16/392737/HK/20712)
Issue

● How does landmark cases of Forest Fire in Indonesia started the

awareness toward transboundary haze pollution.
● Impacts of large scale forest fire in Indonesia to transboundary
pollution
● Which principles of International Environmental law are violated
by the Transboundary Haze Pollution
● Indonesian government action and international community
reaction toward Indonesian forest fire and transboundary haze
pollution.
History
● The emergence of International Environmental law mainly started
when the states as the main actor of the International community
realized that the issue of environment are not only domestic
concern as pollution are not constraint in one state, rather it has
international implication.
● The 1997 ASEAN Haze triggers the emergence of International
especially ASEAN regulatory system which try to mitigate and
minimize the occurrence of Forest Fire, thus transboundary haze.
History of ASEAN Transboundary Haze
● There are two landmark case of ASEAN Transboundary Haze: the
1997 Case and 2015 Case, although the case of Forest Fire
occurs annually only differ in how large-scale it was.
● The result of the landmark case was ASEAN Transboundary Haze
Pollution Agreement
● The Agreement was made in 2002 and was only ratified by the
Indonesian government in 2014.
Regulations of said Matter

1. Principles in Stockholm Declaration.

2. Law No. 26 of 2014, The Indonesian Ratification of The
ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution
Analysis
● Indonesia has an obligation to prevent transboundary harm to affected
states because of the unpleasant history concerning transboundary
damage they have caused over the past years (1997-2015) which
resulted to large amount of economic and environmental losses in
Indonesia -- Principle 21 of Stockholm and Rio Declaration.
● Indonesia finally took actions to prevent further occurrences
concerning Transboundary Haze Pollution under the Indonesian
Ratification on 2002 ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze
Pollution by Law No. 6 of 2014.
 APPLICATION AND VIOLATION OF
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
PRINCIPLES
 Principle of Sovereignty over Natural Resources and the
Responsibility to not cause Transboundary Environmental
Damage
1997 Southeast Asian Haze -- slash-and-burn techniques adopted by
farmers in Indonesia that causes the smoke to spread in Malaysia and
SIngapore. (97-98 El-Nino Phenomenon).

2015 -- The Riau’s 2015 forest fire which cause El Nino Storm, also cause
the spreading of toxic air to Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

2014 - Taking measures on the Ratification on 2002 ASEAN Agreement on

Transboundary Haze Pollution by Law No. 6 of 2014.)
 GOOD NEIGHBORHOODLINESS

● Impact of haze pollution

● Affecting the neighboring countries: Singapore and Malaysia
● Efforts of the government is not sufficient enough to stop forest fire
● But, Indonesia also applies this principle by ratifying the 2002 ASEAN
agreement on Transboundary Haze with Malaysia and Singapore under
Law No. 6 of 2014
 PREVENTIVE ACTION

● The enactment of due diligence

● Certain measures should be taken by government
○ Limit the action and authority of company
○ Enact specific rules
○ Set boundaries to prevent massive forest fire in in protected forests
● National laws involving sanctions towards parties that causes forest
fire. So there is an act of preventive action conducted by Indonesia.
 POLLUTER PAYS

- Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutananan (KLHK) v. PT National

Sago Prima Nomor 591/Pdt.G-LH/2015/PN. Jkt. Sel Case
- PT. NSP: the judges made the decision to pay recovery cost for
Rp753.000.000.000,00 and the compensation for Rp
319.000.000.000,00. In total, it costs approximately Rp 1,07 trilliun
Recommendation
● Better implementation and appliance of the law regarding the forest fire
by the government.
● Government has enacted several acts regarding forest fires, however none
of them specifically discuss regarding haze.
● The affected states of the transboundary harms are given rights to
legal remedy under art. 27 of ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary
Haze Pollution so that they can resort to claim compensation or
pressure Indonesia into taking action.
Conclusion
● The problems in regard to forest fire causing transboundary harm still
occur annually despite Indonesian government promise.
● The transboundary haze had violated many principles of International
Environmental Law with some had actions taken by Indonesian
government and international community done to mitigate the impact.
● Despite the health issue that had been raising due to the haze,
Indonesia has not yet establish a strong regulation and mechanism
specifically regarding transboundary haze to minimize the cause of
forest fire, thus minimizing haze and it being transboundary.