A recent call in France to boycott Nutella had many Italians going nuts. “We should stop eating Nutella,” French Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal urged in a television interview. Her reason: the iconic chocolatehazelnut spread by Italy’s Ferrero Group is made with palm oil. “Oil palms...
The recent haze crisis has set a few new records in the region. Given the massive human and environmental costs, it will go down in history as one of the worst environmental disasters in Southeast Asia. The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has...
When Mr Prayoto was born in Riau in 1980, oil palms occupied less than 10,000ha in the Indonesian province in central Sumatra. When he turned 21 and started working at the Riau Provincial Forestry Service, the figure breached one million hectares. It has since grown...
When China’s President Xi Jinping arrives this week in Singapore, his first state visit to the city-state will do more than commemorate the past 25 years of diplomatic relations. Singapore was an early interlocutor for Beijing, following the first historic meeting in Singapore between Deng Xiaoping...
Some weeks ago, the social media and the South-east Asian academic circle were abuzz in response to a speech by Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan, who likened Asean to a cow. He chided critics of Asean for not recognising Asean as it is, a cow, and wishing...
In all the finger-pointing over the transboundary haze, some banks in Singapore have come under the spotlight for allegedly financing the culprits behind Indonesia’s forest fires. Now the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) has a new set of guidelines for banks to incorporate responsible financing...
It remains essential to work with the Indonesian government to address the haze. However, while intergovernmental cooperation remains key, there is every reason to expect corporations to do their part to stop the fires and haze or risk being taken to task. The first steps towards...
There are reasons to be frustrated and angry about the haze pollution, caused by fires in Indonesian provinces. There are also reasons to question whether real action will be taken and can be effective. The problem is driven not by natural causes, but by man-made deforestation...
It is clear that the haze from fires burning in Indonesia has returned and is worsening. On Tuesday last week (Aug 25), visibility in Palembang, the provincial capital of South Sumatra, was down to about 300m. The count of possible fire hot spots has risen...
The adage is that all politics is local and elections are too often nasty and short-sighted. For the General Election (GE) scheduled for Sept 11, these characteristics may well dominate the hustings. Rumours and blog sites tend to amplify these tendencies. Take, for example, the recent...