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
published by news.mongabay.com
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.