The risk assessment on the possibility and severity of a haze this year made in the SIIA Haze Report 2020 (authored by the Singaporean Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) and Segi Enam Advisors) involved analysing the recent policy directions undertaken by the Indonesian government.

Naturally, much of the analysis was focused on the Peatland Restoration Agency (Badan Restorasi Gambut or BRG), the agency first set up by President Joko Widodo in 2016 with the mandate to re-wet 2.67 million hectares of peatland across seven provinces by 2020. By end-2018, BRG reported that it has restored 780,000 hectares of peatland, although observers have pointed out that the lack of transparency and independent monitoring made it difficult to verify that claim (Jong, 2020; Gewin 2020).

Recent policy efforts are also aimed to halve the number of hotspots from the 2015 count by 2019, beginning with ensuring that 2.4 million hectares of peatland remain unburned and identifying up to 731 villages as fire-prone communities (Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of Indonesia/KKBP et al., 2017). The government has taken various measures in attempt to achieve this objective, including upgrading early fire responses, increasing the enforcement of existing laws regarding forest concessions, and developing adequate infrastructure (such as water management systems) in fire-prone areas.

Read the full report for more information: SIIA Haze Report 2020