Southeast Asian nations propose haze fund, but fail to address root cause

Southeast Asian nations propose haze fund, but fail to address root cause

12 November 2006

ASEAN — Southeast Asian nations agreed to create to a fund to help fight forest fires in Indonesian according to a report from Retuers. The pledge however stops short of addressing the root cause of the choking haze: deforestation.

Reuters says that the first meeting of the the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) on Transboundary Haze Pollution focused on fire-fighting rather than fire prevention efforts. Singapore and Indonesia contributed $100,000 to initially finance the fund.

The 1997-1998 forest fires caused more than $9 billion in damage to southeast Asian economies.

24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin