为何东南亚一年一度的烟霾如此难于治理？

The Economist explains
《经济学人》解读

Why is South-East Asia's annual haze so hard to deal with?
为何东南亚一年一度的烟霾如此难于治理？

Jul 7th 2013, 23:50 by E.H.

A FOUL white smoke has engulfed parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and  Singapore. On June 21st Malaysia declared a state of emergency in parts  of its southern states, after the Air Pollution Index there continued to  rise precipitously. In Singapore the pollution overtook previous  records set in 1997 (when it affected six countries and perhaps 70m  people). This 'haze' has become an almost annual occurrence in  South-East Asia, starting in every dry season. Why is it so difficult to  deal with?

恶心的白色烟雾淹没了印度尼西亚、马来西亚和新加坡多个地方。6月21日，由于空气污染指数陡然急剧持续攀升，马来西亚宣布其南部各州的部分地区进入紧急 状态。在新加坡，污染指数打破了其1997年创下的前记录（当时有6个国家及约7000万人受到影响）。在东南亚，这样的“烟霾”几乎每年都会发生，始于 每个旱季。为何它如此难于治理呢？

Slash-and-burn farming is largely to blame for the haze. It is the  cheapest way to clear clogged woodland, with many villagers unable to  buy or hire expensive earth-moving machines to make their land arable.  At least three laws in Indonesia prohibit the burning and clearing of  forests. But these have never been seriously enforced by the government.  Hardly anyone has been successfully prosecuted over the years for  lighting fires. And as Singaporeans and Malaysians have taken pains to  point out, Indonesia was the only member of the Association of  South-East Asian Nations not to have ratified a 2002 Agreement on  Transboundary Haze Pollution.

此烟霾在很大程度上要归咎于刀耕火种的农业耕作。由于许多村民无力购买或租用昂贵的掘土机来保持土壤的肥力，这成了清理淤滞林地的最廉价方式。在印度尼西 亚，至少有三部法律禁止焚烧及清理林地。但政府从未严格执行。多年来，几乎从未有人成功起诉过纵火焚林的行为。而且正如新加坡和马来西亚竭力指出的那样， 印度尼西亚是东南亚国家联盟成员国中唯一一个尚未批准2002年跨境雾霾污染协议的国家。

Most of the burning is concentrated this year in the Riau province on  the east coast of Sumatra. The province is Indonesia's most productive  palm-oil producer, producing 5m tonnes a year. About half of the land on  which the fires are burning in Sumatra belongs to big palm-oil  conglomerates, many of them Malaysian-owned. Most have strict no-burning  policies, but have been accused of starting fires (or paying others to  light them on their behalf) in the past, in order to clear more of their  concessions for palm oil. Yuyun Indradi, a campaigner at Greenpeace,  says that it is common for large firms to expand by paying locals to set  fires along the sides of their concessions. But palm oil's economic  importance to Indonesia, a relatively poor country, guarantees its  protection. Last year exports totalled $17.9 billion, second only to  coal. Some 5m people live off the industry.

今年的焚林行为大多集中在苏门答腊岛东部沿岸的廖内省。该省是印度尼西亚最盛产棕榈油的产地，年产500万吨棕榈油。苏门答腊岛上被纵火焚烧的土地中将近 一半是属于大型棕榈油企业集团的，而这些集团大多为马来西亚人所有。大多数集团制定了严格的禁止焚烧林地政策，但它们一直以来被控为了清理出更多的棕榈油 商业用地而纵火（即收买当地人代他们点火）。绿色和平组织活动者Yuyun  Indradi称，大企业通过收买当地人沿其商业用地边界纵火来进行扩张是很常见的。然而棕榈油对于印度尼西亚——一个相对贫穷的国家——的经济意义在为 其保驾护航。其去年棕榈油的出口总额高达179亿美元，仅次于煤炭。约500万人依靠该行业来谋生。

It is hard to see how the situation will improve. Corruption does not  help: this year's disaster was preceded by the arrest of Rusli Zainal,  the governor of Riau since 2003. He was charged with giving out illegal  logging permits to finance his re-election campaign. Conflicting maps  and the confusing ownership structures of the palm-oil conglomerates  also make it hard to enforce rules regarding farming and forestry. And  underlying all of this is the fact that much of the area now burning in  Riau is peat wetland, the result of years of deforestation. Peat can go  down to a depth of 30m in Sumatra and is highly combustible, with fires  smouldering underground long after a fire has been extinguished on the  surface. So the fires continue to linger invisibly, as do the dark  commercial and political motives that also sustain them.

难于看到这种状况会有所改善。贪污腐败更是于事无补：今年的灾难以卢斯里·再纳（Rusli  Zainal）被捕为前导，卢斯里自2003年起一直担任廖内省省长。他被控以滥发非法伐木许可证来为其竞选连任筹款。互相冲突的地图和令人困惑的棕榈油 企业产权体系也令到农业和林业的相关法规难于执行。除了这一切之外，更根本的因素是，眼下廖内省遭焚烧的大部分区域是多年来砍伐森林所形成的泥炭湿地。在 苏门答腊岛，泥炭的深度可以深达30米，并且高度易燃，其在地表火熄灭后还能在地下长期闷燃。所以大火继续以不可见的方式徘徊不去，一如同样维持着它的灰 色商业及政治动机。