The 2015 Southeast Asian haze is an air pollution crisis affecting several countries in Southeast Asia, including Brunei, Indonesia (especially its islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan), Malaysia, Singapore, Southern Thailand, and Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines.
Duration 28 June 2015 – present
More than 28 million people in Indonesia alone are affected by the crisis, and more than 140,000 reported respiratory illness. The Indonesian government has estimated that the haze crisis will cost it between 300 to 475 trillion rupiah (up to S$47 billion) to mitigate.
The fires are caused by firms and farmers engaging in illegal slash-and-burn practices as a relatively inexpensive means to clear their land of unwanted vegetation and peat.
Firstly, land clearing by burning is cheap and is more often chosen by companies than any other land-clearing method. Secondly, most companies want to avoid spending money on reforestation. Any company which obtains a license for forest lands must replant them from a fund provided by the government.[36] Most companies do not replant, and to avoid detection, they burn the land. Thirdly, the companies revitalise palm plantations by cutting or burning old palm trees that are no longer productive. The regulation stipulates that such burning must be done on a bed of concrete to avoid spreading the fire, but to reduce costs, most companies do not do this.
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