Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia

Forest fires and its resulting haze has been a recurring transboundary environmental problem in Southeast Asia. This research paper shows the strong correlation between the opening of plantation land in Indonesia and Malaysia and fires that cause haze. It argues that commercial plantations contribut...

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Main Author:	Helena Muhamad Varkkey
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Environmental Management Society, Malaysia 2011
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6433/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6433/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6433/1/4_MJEM_2011%282%29_Helena_Varkkey.pdf

id	ukm-6433
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-64332016-12-14T06:41:09Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6433/ Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia Helena Muhamad Varkkey, Forest fires and its resulting haze has been a recurring transboundary environmental problem in Southeast Asia. This research paper shows the strong correlation between the opening of plantation land in Indonesia and Malaysia and fires that cause haze. It argues that commercial plantations contribute significantly more to open burning fires than small-scale slash-and-burn farmers. It shows that economic motivation and governmental encouragement has motivated commercial plantations, especially for oil palm, to open land on fire-prone peatland and old cropland, producing smoke that often travels across borders. This has contributed to and exacerbated the transboundary haze problem in the region. This paper discusses two types of land use change often employed in Indonesia, and to a lesser extent Malaysia, for conversion into oil palm plantations, and how they are linked with increase in fires: conversions of pristine peatlands, and of degraded logged-over forests and old cropland. Environmental Management Society, Malaysia 2011 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6433/1/4_MJEM_2011%282%29_Helena_Varkkey.pdf Helena Muhamad Varkkey, (2011) Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia. Malaysian Journal of Environmental Management, 12 (2). pp. 33-41. ISSN 1511-7855 http://www.emsmalaysia.org
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	Forest fires and its resulting haze has been a recurring transboundary environmental problem in Southeast Asia. This research paper shows the strong correlation between the opening of plantation land in Indonesia and Malaysia and fires that cause haze. It argues that commercial plantations contribute significantly more to open burning fires than small-scale slash-and-burn farmers. It shows that economic motivation and governmental encouragement has motivated commercial plantations, especially for oil palm, to open land on fire-prone peatland and old cropland, producing smoke that often travels across borders. This has contributed to and exacerbated the transboundary haze problem in the region. This paper discusses two types of land use change often employed in Indonesia, and to a lesser extent Malaysia, for conversion into oil palm plantations, and how they are linked with increase in fires: conversions of pristine peatlands, and of degraded logged-over forests and old cropland.
format	Article
author	Helena Muhamad Varkkey,
spellingShingle	Helena Muhamad Varkkey, Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia
author_facet	Helena Muhamad Varkkey,
author_sort	Helena Muhamad Varkkey,
title	Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia
title_short	Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia
title_full	Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia
title_fullStr	Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia
title_full_unstemmed	Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia
title_sort	plantation land management, fires and haze in southeast asia
publisher	Environmental Management Society, Malaysia
publishDate	2011
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6433/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6433/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6433/1/4_MJEM_2011%282%29_Helena_Varkkey.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:46:53Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:46:53Z
_version_	1777405959355760640

Plantation land management, fires and haze in Southeast Asia

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