ASEAN Inks landmark Deal to Battle Haze

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, June 11, 2002

ASEAN Inks landmark Deal to Battle Haze

ASEAN environment ministers yesterday signed a landmark agreement which is a big step forward in the battle against the haze that regularly chokes the region.

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ASEAN environment ministers yesterday signed a landmark agreement which is a big step forward in the battle against the haze that regularly chokes the region.

The pact, signed in Kuala Lumpur and touted as the world's first such agreement, makes it binding on the 10 ASEAN member-nations to take and enforce measures to curb the smog from forest and land fires that has become a regular regional event in recent years. It sets out clearly the obligations of the ASEAN members and details the preventive measures and responses expected of them.

'ASEAN considers this event as extremely important. It is one of Asean's most significant agreements,' said the group's secretary-general, Rodolfo Severino, at the signing ceremony.

The agreement was signed at the opening of the three-day World Conference on Land and Forest Fire Hazards in the Malaysian capital.

Under the agreement, a centre - the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control - will be set up to monitor and coordinate information on the pollution.

The signatories also agreed to help the transit of personnel and equipment through their territories to help combat the haze-causing fires in another country. Countries where the pollution originates must 'respond promptly' to requests for information and consultations sought by another country that feels threatened by the haze.

The member nations were also urged to enforce local laws to prevent incidences of deliberate burning of land or forests. They must take 'legal and administrative measures to implement their obligations', the agreement said.

The agreement is seen as a timely step, coming as it has just ahead of an expected spell of dry weather from next month.

ASEAN environment ministers had adopted a Regional Haze Action Plan after a haze, fed by raging forest fires in Indonesia and fuelled by El Nino, descended on the region in 1997 and 1998.

The haze that stayed put for weeks together in those two years cost US$9 billion (S$16.1 billion) in agricultural, transportation, tourism and other economic losses, the ASEAN secretariat said.

The agreement, which will enter into force after six Asean member states have ratified or acceded to it, is seen as a watershed event.

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