Make the forest arsonists pay

Environmentalists have branded Indonesia’s man-made foreign fires as “Eco-terrorism”. Snappy though the term may be, the disastrous fires, the smoke from which is impacting other countries in the region, as well as Indonesia itself, are not terrorism. What they really represent is a continuing failure by the authorities in Indonesia to end a vast criminal campaign, which has dangerous long-term implications for the country. Ever year criminal gangs set about clearing extensive areas of forest by setting them on fire. The aim is both the valuable hardwood timber that is exposed when the blazes have passed through and also to release hundreds of thousands of hectares of new arable land in which good value cash crops such a palms oil can be grown. Palm oil is an essential ingredient for everything from soaps and cosmetics to food and manufacturing. Once upon a time the fires were confined to smallholders. As with the South American rain forest, subsistence farmers cleared fresh land because the land they had cleared a few years before had quickly become infertile. Indeed, very often the fragile top soil, without plant roots to bind it, had been washed or blown away. Key rain forest that was crucial for the whole global environment was been nibbled away Unfortunately, what was a minor environmental problem has now become a major international concern. The huge haze of smoke that is once again afflicting Indonesia and its neighbors, Singapore and Malaysia and even spreading to southern Thailand and the Philippines is a massive marker that proclaims the major crimes that are still being committed on Indonesia soil. Year after year, the illegal burning of the country’s forests produces massive pollution and angry protests from its neighbors. Year after year officials in Jakarta say that they are doing what they can but it is very hard to catch the criminals. Also because the soil also tends to catch fire, it is also difficult to put out the fires themselves. The failure of the Indonesian authorities to act suggests either collusion — some powerful political names are involved in the illegal burning and subsequent cultivation of the land — or sheer incompetence. There is, however, a way that they could make their job easier for themselves. Based on the most recent survey of the country’s remaining forests, the government in Jakarta could declare that any arable product from newly-cleared land would be seized and the beneficial owner of that land, even if they claimed that they had bought it in good faith, would be prosecuted and heavily fined or imprisoned. In addition the governments of Singapore and Malaysia would be well advised to seek compensation from Jakarta through the international courts. Since it is clear that the Indonesia authorities have, for whatever reason, for year after year failed to end the illegal burnings and clearance, they are obviously liable for the health and environmental consequences felt by their affected neighbors. Therefore the government and by extension the Indonesian tax payer should be made to give compensation. Those who grow and those who purchase the palm oil product from that land should be joined in the action as well. Since this ugly environmental disaster is being brought about by sheer greed, it would seem clear that financial penalties will inflict the greatest pain and have the strongest chance of stopping this environmental disaster.