As the established key contributor of both episodes of the SEA Haze (through scientific data and admittance), Indonesia has recently ratified the ASEAN Agreement against Transboundary Haze Pollution although its effectiveness remains to be seen. However to Indonesia's credit, this is not their only concerted effort in trying to reduce the haze.
At a state level, Indonesia has laws against illegal burning but these laws are a weak deterrent due to poor enforcement by a "junior ministry" within Indonesian politics. There is a misalignment of incentives due to the incongruence between civic welfare and economic returns. Nonetheless, there are indications of growing political will by Indonesian heavyweights. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had declared a war against the haze in 2006 and according to The Economist, he has been "uncommonly courageous" in protecting the environment. In 2009, he had pledged to cut carbon emissions by at least 26% by 2020. This promise being made on an international platform is significant because most of Indonesia's carbon dioxide emissions are a consequence of deforestation. In 2011, the President had also imposed a two-year moratorium on granting forest clearing concessions under Norway's $1 billion Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation-Plus programme. He had also extended this moratorium till 2013 in spite of vast pressures from naysayers to the policies.
I don't want to be pessimistic but can we just say that while it is great that Indonesia is cooperative at the very least, this cooperation and the promises by the President seemed to have little effect against the overall haze situation, given its reoccurrence on a yearly basis. Either they are hitting the wrong spots or what is being done is too little to mitigate against the prevalence of the haze. The following blog posts on the political and geopolitical struggles on haze prevention will elucidate this to greater detail.
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