Researchers say the fires are no longer limited to drought years, and are now an annual event, usually peaking around September or October. Read some facts about Indonesia’s fires and the haze.

The thick haze is caused by fires set to clear land for palm oil plantations and other uses. At least 19 people have died from effects of the smoke, and half a million are suffering from respiratory problems. Louis Verchot, a scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research, believes the actual number of the affected is much higher. During a workshop in mid-October he and others found many harmful gases in the air in Central Kalimantan on Borneo, including ozone, carbon monoxide, cyanide, ammonia, formaldehyde, nitric oxide, and methane.

Dampak ekonomi akibat kebakaran hutan dan lahan di Indonesia diperkirakan mencapai lebih dari Rp200 trilliun, melebihi kerugian pada tahun 1997, padahal jumlah lahan yang terbakar jauh lebih sedikit. Peneliti Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Herry Purnomo, menjelaskan hitungannya itu didasarkan pada angka kerugian pada 1997 ditambah dengan kerugian yang dialami Malaysia dan Singapura.

After months spent focusing on wildfires across Sumatra and Kalimantan, some Indonesian disaster management officials were on Tuesday turning their attention to preventing floods in several parts of the archipelago. Louis Verchot, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), said after a recent visit to Central Kalimantan province that the Indonesian government’s official figure of around 500,000 cases of respiratory ailments from the smog was likely an underestimate because of the likely number of unreported cases. “People in rural areas seek medical attention when it’s really bad,” Verchot said. “I’m pretty sure it’s an underestimate. This must be the people who are seriously affected.”

The environmental impact of palm oil is in the spotlight but the workers who endure exploitation in the name of our cakes and cosmetics are largely ignored. Today, Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia account for about 85% of the global production of palm oil and employ as many as 3.5 million workers to maintain plantations and harvest the most traded oil in the world. The palm oil industry would not be possible without migrant labour. This is the conclusion of Pablo Pacheco, principal scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research, who points out that the palm oil industry in turn has promoted a “migrant flux”.

This year has been particularly bad because of lower rainfall linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon, although recent downpours have doused some of the fires and dramatically reduced the haze and smoke. Read facts about Indonesia’s haze fires compiled  from World Resources Institute, Global Fire Emissions Database, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and media reports.

Toxic fumes from the Indonesian fires that have spread a choking haze across Southeast Asia may be doing more harm to human and plant health than officials have indicated, scientists measuring the pollution say. Farmers are expecting a poor harvest because plants have too little sunlight for normal photosynthesis, while government figures of half a million sickened by the smoke are only the “tip of the iceberg”, said Louis Verchot, a scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Kerugian akibat kebakaran hutan selama tahun 2015 semakin nyata. Dengan lahan terbakar hingga mencapai 2,1 juta hektar (setara lebih kurang 4 kali luas pulau Bali) Herry Purnomo, Peneliti CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research) dan Dosen Fakultas Kehutanan IPB bahkan memberikan nilai kerugian dampak kabut asap perekonomian di Indonesia, Singapura dan Malaysia yang mencapai hingga USD 20 milyar. Menurutnya perhitungan tersebut berasal dari nilai ekonomi, tanaman yang terbakar, air yang tercemar, emisi, korban jiwa dan masalah kesehatan warga, hingga kerugian di sektor transportasi.