Photo credit Bjorn Vaughn

Have you heard about the haze crisis in Indonesia? Or perhaps you haven’t, since until the last few days there seems to be no proper media coverage on what is now proving to be one of the worst environmental disasters of the 21st century. Many are calling it a crime against humanity and this should be front page news!

The most ancient rain forests on this planet are ablaze with thousands of fires. The islands of Borneo and Sumatra are hit the hardest and almost 100% of these fires have been deliberately started by men.

Borneo and Sumatra are the homes of last remaining populations of the great apes, the Orangutans, but these islands are also the home of some of the largest plantations in the world and setting the peatland on fire for the production of pulp, paper and palm oil is a practice that goes back more than 20 years. Each year this causes a big problem with the haze that the fires generate, except this year is like no other. Until recently, the fires were mostly confined to farmland, plantations, and areas of scrub and grassland. This is no longer the case. Peatland drainage and forest clearance, coupled with a severe drought caused by a strong El Niño weather system, have allowed peatland fires to take hold easily and accelerate rapidly, burning deep into some of the planet’s most important rain forests.