Farmers could be provided with subsidies by the Indonesian government to purchase the required proper land-clearing machinery (forestry-mowers, excavators). In this way, farmers would be able to clear the forest the proper way, without causing air pollution. Farmers caught as repeat offenders should be fined or even jailed. Large corporations have the resources to do that, so if they are caught setting forest-fires, they should be punished severely by being heavily fined.

The government should draw up more stringent laws to deal with the farmers and corporations that contribute to the haze situation. People responsible should be punished severely by being heavily fined. Repeat offenders should even be jailed. From our interview with Dr Chang Chew Hung, we learnt that it is not enough just to draw up a law against farmers who use the “slash-and-burn” method of clearing the land, but it also includes enforcing it —the government should be more active in sending officials to conduct frequent checks at the potential fire-setting sites, especially around September to December annually. This would prevent farmers from setting forest-fires to clear land. However, if the officials discover that fires have already been started, they should immediately spring in action by mobilizing the fire-fighting force to extinguish the flames as soon as possible before it spreads to the entire forest.

Indonesian farmers causing this haze situation might not know the terrible implications of their inconsiderate acts of setting forest-fires to clear land for crop-planting. That is why our team has put in lots of time and effort to develop this web portal, “A Hazy Situation”, to inform the farmers about the consequences of their acts, and on behalf of South-East Asia, tell them, “The haze has severe impact on the environment and health — please stop it!”