The Haze
The Haze
Forest fires in Indonesia have resulted in a smoky haze blanketing the South East Asia for years and has intensified in recent years. Every year Indonesia sees agriculture fires in East Sumatra, South Sumatra, and parts of Kalimantan. The fires are said to be caused by corporations as well as small-scale farmers who use the slash-and-burn method to clear vegetation for palm oil, pulp and paper plantations. The fires often spin out of control and spread into protected forested areas. The fires are difficult to put out as they often flare up on peat land. The problem has accelerated in recent years as more land has been cleared for expanding plantations for the palm oil trade. The burnt land also becomes drier, which makes it more likely to catch fire the next time there are slash-and-burn clearings. The haze usually measures hundreds of kilometres across. It has spread to Malaysia, Singapore, the south of Thailand and the Philippines, causing a significant deterioration in air quality. In 2014, it has been blamed for deaths in Indonesia and respiratory illnesses in around 500,000 people, according to the government. Elsewhere it has prompted school closures, flight cancellations and virtual shutdowns of towns and cities. The forest fires have also destroyed much of the natural habitat of Indonesia's orang-utans and Sumatra tigers and released large amounts of damaging carbon into the atmosphere. The boundaries and issues related to that is somehow clarified in Eyal Weisman’s Article, ‘Fornesis’: “Within the fields of human rights and international law a methodological shift has recently lead to a certain blurring. An emerging forensic sensibility has increasingly blurred the previously distinct categories of evidence, corresponding to the law’s reference to objects, and the witness, the source of human testimony. This forensic turn is articulated against a cultural background that is increasingly tuned to the testimony of victims. Referred to by scholars as the “era of the witness,” recent decades have seen the foregrounding of the narratives of victims, so that they have exerted an enormous cultural, aesthetic, and political influence.” In the meantime Indonesian authorities continue to struggle to put out the fires, many of which have flared up on flammable and dry peat-rich areas. A peat fire is difficult to put out as it can burn underground for months, and requires a lot of water to extinguish. Fires can spread underground and spring up in other places later. Understanding the line between the Indonesian government or other political-economic forces and influencers is blured. “Political theory lacks a sense of territory; territory lacks a political theory. Although a central term within political geography and international relations, the concept of territory has been under-examined.” (Stuart Elden, 2015) “The politics is rooted in territory… [But] the spatial dimension of the political economy is so prevalent that it is easily, if not frequently, overlooked.” Indonesia and environment rights activists also say it is not entirely to blame, as some of the corporations accused of illegal burning have Malaysian and Singaporean investors. Singapore in 2014 passed a set of laws that allow it to prosecute individuals and companies that contribute to the haze, and has begun taking legal action against several
firms. There have also been name-and-shame campaigns and calls to boycott the products of the companies said to be contributing to the haze. The essay tries to locate and figure out the “other modalities of how to achieve the aim of participatory planning: to articulate and raise issues and concerns especially from more marginalized groups in society and to legitimate the compelling ones and bring them to the government planning table.” (A.M. Kim, 2015) When renewable raw materials such as palm oil and palm kernel oil are used, the main focus is on economic, environmental and social impacts along the entire supply chain – from field to shelf. Small farms produce around 40 percent of the world’s palm and palm kernel oil. An important question for the oil producing countries is how to increase the yields from the land already under cultivation. This is why Henkel and some other companies are collaborating with the development organization Solidaridad to support a project in Indonesia and advocate for smallholders and local initiatives. Sustainable farming methods, efficient production and high occupational health and safety standards which are some of the most important conditions for certified palm oil production. As Albena mentioned in her article, “Give me a gun and I will make the buildings move”: “we live in a very different world than that of Euclidian space: phenomenologists (and psychologists of the Gibsonian school) have never tired of showing that there is an immense distance in the way an embodied mind experiences its surroundings from the “objective” shape that “material” objects are said to possess.” This can helps us to drag out the implications of what will push the smallholders learn how to fulfill these requirements locally, in dedicated training programs. Since 2015, Henkel has been supporting the 5-yearproject in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan. The smallholder program will coach and support the teachers who carry out the trainings on the ground and who will continue the farmer support program after the project ends. The teachers will be employees of local credit organization in Indonesia. Through the project, they will establish sustainable supply chains for palm and palm kernel oil that both effectively improve smallholders’ living conditions and are eligible for certification according to the criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Farmers will learn about the different aspects of good agricultural practice in direct trainings that include measures for sustainable farming as well as for increasing crop yields. Furthermore, smallholders will be reached not only through a multiplier effect, but also via farmer field days and regular text messages on their mobile phones. Elden, in his article: ‘Land, terrain, territory’, specifies that “It would be unusual or reductive to see the political-economic, political-strategic, political-legal or political-technical in strict isolation. Political-economic accounts often indicate a strategic relation; strategic work recognises the importance of law and the dependence on measure and calculation. Yet it is only in seeing these elements together, and in privileging the legal and the technical, that an understanding of the complexities of territory can be attained. To concentrate on the political-economic risks reducing territory to land; to emphasise the political strategic blurs it with a sense of terrain. Recognising both, and seeing the development made possible by emergent political techniques allows us to understand territory as a distinctive mode of
social/spatial organisation, one which is historically and geographically limited and dependent, rather than a biological drive or social need. Indeed, recognising and interrogating this does not just allow us to see that the modern division and ordering of the world is peculiar and clearly not the only possible way, but it also allows us to begin to escape what Agnew described as the territorial trap‘.” To uncover this situation as a tool to improve the proper proposition of the above, achieving to a better understanding of the politiceconomic rules of the area and the way people try to bargain from is the key to success. Unfortunately, as a matter of fact, the imbalance power and knowledge between smallholders and the main investors, provides a big gap which is hard to fill and needs so much support especially from the government or all companies and supporting the sustainable production. Methods of achieving this disempowerment include stronger law enforcement on illegal land claims and transactions, cutting the flow of money coming from investors, and allocating land to small-scale farmers so they are not as dependent on the local elites.
Forest fires in Indonesia have resulted in a smoky haze blanketing the South East Asia for years and has intensified in recent years. Every year Indonesia sees agriculture fires in East Sumatra, South Sumatra, and parts of Kalimantan. The fires are said to be caused by corporations as well as small-scale farmers who use the slash-and-burn method to clear vegetation for palm oil, pulp and paper plantations. The fires often spin out of control and spread into protected forested areas. The fires are difficult to put out as they often flare up on peat land. The problem has accelerated in recent years as more land has been cleared for expanding plantations for the palm oil trade. The burnt land also becomes drier, which makes it more likely to catch fire the next time there are slash-and-burn clearings. The haze usually measures hundreds of kilometres across. It has spread to Malaysia, Singapore, the south of Thailand and the Philippines, causing a significant deterioration in air quality. In 2014, it has been blamed for deaths in Indonesia and respiratory illnesses in around 500,000 people, according to the government. Elsewhere it has prompted school closures, flight cancellations and virtual shutdowns of towns and cities. The forest fires have also destroyed much of the natural habitat of Indonesia's orang-utans and Sumatra tigers and released large amounts of damaging carbon into the atmosphere. The boundaries and issues related to that is somehow clarified in Eyal Weisman’s Article, ‘Fornesis’: “Within the fields of human rights and international law a methodological shift has recently lead to a certain blurring. An emerging forensic sensibility has increasingly blurred the previously distinct categories of evidence, corresponding to the law’s reference to objects, and the witness, the source of human testimony. This forensic turn is articulated against a cultural background that is increasingly tuned to the testimony of victims. Referred to by scholars as the “era of the witness,” recent decades have seen the foregrounding of the narratives of victims, so that they have exerted an enormous cultural, aesthetic, and political influence.” In the meantime Indonesian authorities continue to struggle to put out the fires, many of which have flared up on flammable and dry peat-rich areas. A peat fire is difficult to put out as it can burn underground for months, and requires a lot of water to extinguish. Fires can spread underground and spring up in other places later. Understanding the line between the Indonesian government or other political-economic forces and influencers is blured. “Political theory lacks a sense of territory; territory lacks a political theory. Although a central term within political geography and international relations, the concept of territory has been under-examined.” (Stuart Elden, 2015) “The politics is rooted in territory… [But] the spatial dimension of the political economy is so prevalent that it is easily, if not frequently, overlooked.” Indonesia and environment rights activists also say it is not entirely to blame, as some of the corporations accused of illegal burning have Malaysian and Singaporean investors. Singapore in 2014 passed a set of laws that allow it to prosecute individuals and companies that contribute to the haze, and has begun taking legal action against several
firms. There have also been name-and-shame campaigns and calls to boycott the products of the companies said to be contributing to the haze. The essay tries to locate and figure out the “other modalities of how to achieve the aim of participatory planning: to articulate and raise issues and concerns especially from more marginalized groups in society and to legitimate the compelling ones and bring them to the government planning table.” (A.M. Kim, 2015) When renewable raw materials such as palm oil and palm kernel oil are used, the main focus is on economic, environmental and social impacts along the entire supply chain – from field to shelf. Small farms produce around 40 percent of the world’s palm and palm kernel oil. An important question for the oil producing countries is how to increase the yields from the land already under cultivation. This is why Henkel and some other companies are collaborating with the development organization Solidaridad to support a project in Indonesia and advocate for smallholders and local initiatives. Sustainable farming methods, efficient production and high occupational health and safety standards which are some of the most important conditions for certified palm oil production. As Albena mentioned in her article, “Give me a gun and I will make the buildings move”: “we live in a very different world than that of Euclidian space: phenomenologists (and psychologists of the Gibsonian school) have never tired of showing that there is an immense distance in the way an embodied mind experiences its surroundings from the “objective” shape that “material” objects are said to possess.” This can helps us to drag out the implications of what will push the smallholders learn how to fulfill these requirements locally, in dedicated training programs. Since 2015, Henkel has been supporting the 5-yearproject in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan. The smallholder program will coach and support the teachers who carry out the trainings on the ground and who will continue the farmer support program after the project ends. The teachers will be employees of local credit organization in Indonesia. Through the project, they will establish sustainable supply chains for palm and palm kernel oil that both effectively improve smallholders’ living conditions and are eligible for certification according to the criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Farmers will learn about the different aspects of good agricultural practice in direct trainings that include measures for sustainable farming as well as for increasing crop yields. Furthermore, smallholders will be reached not only through a multiplier effect, but also via farmer field days and regular text messages on their mobile phones. Elden, in his article: ‘Land, terrain, territory’, specifies that “It would be unusual or reductive to see the political-economic, political-strategic, political-legal or political-technical in strict isolation. Political-economic accounts often indicate a strategic relation; strategic work recognises the importance of law and the dependence on measure and calculation. Yet it is only in seeing these elements together, and in privileging the legal and the technical, that an understanding of the complexities of territory can be attained. To concentrate on the political-economic risks reducing territory to land; to emphasise the political strategic blurs it with a sense of terrain. Recognising both, and seeing the development made possible by emergent political techniques allows us to understand territory as a distinctive mode of
social/spatial organisation, one which is historically and geographically limited and dependent, rather than a biological drive or social need. Indeed, recognising and interrogating this does not just allow us to see that the modern division and ordering of the world is peculiar and clearly not the only possible way, but it also allows us to begin to escape what Agnew described as the territorial trap‘.” To uncover this situation as a tool to improve the proper proposition of the above, achieving to a better understanding of the politiceconomic rules of the area and the way people try to bargain from is the key to success. Unfortunately, as a matter of fact, the imbalance power and knowledge between smallholders and the main investors, provides a big gap which is hard to fill and needs so much support especially from the government or all companies and supporting the sustainable production. Methods of achieving this disempowerment include stronger law enforcement on illegal land claims and transactions, cutting the flow of money coming from investors, and allocating land to small-scale farmers so they are not as dependent on the local elites.
