Indonesia's Agreement to Share Concession Maps to Tackle Occurrence of Haze

Debated in Parliament on 12 Aug 2013.

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Gerald Giam asked how Indonesia’s limited sharing of concession maps on a case-by-case, government-to-government basis would help identify companies responsible for slash-and-burn, what specific situations allow or block map sharing, and whether a launch date for the ASEAN Haze Monitoring System (HMS) was set.
Vivian Balakrishnan explained that haze stems from cheap forest burning and that ministers agreed to share concession maps and use satellite tech to monitor hotspots, with Singapore developing the HMS platform to overlay maps and pinpoint errant companies.
However, the July 2013 ministerial agreement fell short of Singapore’s push for a public, fully functional system due to Indonesia’s claimed legal impediments, resulting only in government-to-government data sharing pending ASEAN Leaders’ approval in October 2013.
Balakrishnan stressed that even limited map sharing would still enable governments to identify and act against offending companies, and urged ASEAN to launch the HMS with Indonesia’s maps promptly and for Indonesia to ratify the ASEAN Haze Pollution Agreement.

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Gerald Giam Yean Song

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) to what extent will Indonesia's agreement to share digitised concession maps of its forests on only a case-by-case and government-to-government basis help with the identification of errant companies engaging in slash-and-burn practices; (b) what are the situations in which Indonesia has agreed, or not agreed, to share their concession maps; and (c) whether any date has been set for the launch of the ASEAN Sub-Regional Haze Monitoring System (HMS) platform.

Vivian Balakrishnan

Haze is caused by the burning of forests because this is the cheapest way to clear land. The Ministers of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) on Transboundary Haze Pollution agreed to explore sharing concession maps and the use of satellite and mapping technologies to monitor hotspots and identify errant companies. Singapore was at the forefront of this effort by developing the technology platform to enable this – the ASEAN Sub-Regional Haze Monitoring System (HMS). The overlay of Indonesia’s concession maps on the hotspot data will help to pinpoint which plantation companies are responsible for illegal slash-and-burn practices.

Unfortunately, the agreement that was reached among the Ministers at the 15th MSC meeting held on 17 July 2013 fell short of Singapore's

Page: 121

recommendation a fully functioning system populated with comprehensive accurate concession maps overlaid with hotspot locations accessible to the general public. Unfortunately, Indonesia claimed there were legal impediments to greater transparency. Consequently, we could only get a consensus to adopt the joint haze monitoring system with data shared at the government-to-government level, subject to the ASEAN Leaders' approval at the ASEAN Leaders' Summit in October 2013.

Nevertheless, even if the maps can only be shared on a government-to-government basis, the HMS should enable governments to identify errant companies and take appropriate enforcement action against them. We, therefore, hope that ASEAN will launch the HMS with the relevant country concession maps promptly in October 2013. We also hope Indonesia will ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution as soon as possible.

Summary written by AI (learn more)

Gerald Giam asked how Indonesia’s limited sharing of concession maps on a case-by-case, government-to-government basis would help identify companies responsible for slash-and-burn, what specific situations allow or block map sharing, and whether a launch date for the ASEAN Haze Monitoring System (HMS) was set.
Vivian Balakrishnan explained that haze stems from cheap forest burning and that ministers agreed to share concession maps and use satellite tech to monitor hotspots, with Singapore developing the HMS platform to overlay maps and pinpoint errant companies.
However, the July 2013 ministerial agreement fell short of Singapore’s push for a public, fully functional system due to Indonesia’s claimed legal impediments, resulting only in government-to-government data sharing pending ASEAN Leaders’ approval in October 2013.
Balakrishnan stressed that even limited map sharing would still enable governments to identify and act against offending companies, and urged ASEAN to launch the HMS with Indonesia’s maps promptly and for Indonesia to ratify the ASEAN Haze Pollution Agreement.

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Indonesia's Agreement to Share Concession Maps to Tackle Occurrence of Haze | PAPERCUTS

Indonesia's Agreement to Share Concession Maps to Tackle Occurrence of Haze

Debated in Parliament on 12 Aug 2013.

Summary written by AI (learn more)

Gerald Giam asked how Indonesia’s limited sharing of concession maps on a case-by-case, government-to-government basis would help identify companies responsible for slash-and-burn, what specific situations allow or block map sharing, and whether a launch date for the ASEAN Haze Monitoring System (HMS) was set.
Vivian Balakrishnan explained that haze stems from cheap forest burning and that ministers agreed to share concession maps and use satellite tech to monitor hotspots, with Singapore developing the HMS platform to overlay maps and pinpoint errant companies.
However, the July 2013 ministerial agreement fell short of Singapore’s push for a public, fully functional system due to Indonesia’s claimed legal impediments, resulting only in government-to-government data sharing pending ASEAN Leaders’ approval in October 2013.
Balakrishnan stressed that even limited map sharing would still enable governments to identify and act against offending companies, and urged ASEAN to launch the HMS with Indonesia’s maps promptly and for Indonesia to ratify the ASEAN Haze Pollution Agreement.

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Full Transcript

Gerald Giam Yean Song

Vivian Balakrishnan

Unfortunately, the agreement that was reached among the Ministers at the 15th MSC meeting held on 17 July 2013 fell short of Singapore's

Page: 121

Summary written by AI (learn more)

Gerald Giam asked how Indonesia’s limited sharing of concession maps on a case-by-case, government-to-government basis would help identify companies responsible for slash-and-burn, what specific situations allow or block map sharing, and whether a launch date for the ASEAN Haze Monitoring System (HMS) was set.
Vivian Balakrishnan explained that haze stems from cheap forest burning and that ministers agreed to share concession maps and use satellite tech to monitor hotspots, with Singapore developing the HMS platform to overlay maps and pinpoint errant companies.
However, the July 2013 ministerial agreement fell short of Singapore’s push for a public, fully functional system due to Indonesia’s claimed legal impediments, resulting only in government-to-government data sharing pending ASEAN Leaders’ approval in October 2013.
Balakrishnan stressed that even limited map sharing would still enable governments to identify and act against offending companies, and urged ASEAN to launch the HMS with Indonesia’s maps promptly and for Indonesia to ratify the ASEAN Haze Pollution Agreement.

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Indonesia's Agreement to Share Concession Maps to Tackle Occurrence of Haze

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Gerald Giam Yean Song

Vivian Balakrishnan

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Indonesia's Agreement to Share Concession Maps to Tackle Occurrence of Haze

Summary

Questions Identified

Full Transcript

Gerald Giam Yean Song

Vivian Balakrishnan

Summary

Questions Identified