Background: 

In recent years, forest fires have risen in global attention as an environmental and economic issue. Fires are considered a threat to sustainable development because of their direct effects on ecosystems, contribution to carbon emissions and impact on biodiversity. Peat fire produce smoke haze which has a negative impact on health, daily life, transportation, education and regional cooperation. 

In Indonesia, forest fires occur almost every year especially in dry season. Many researchers stated that almost 99% of forest and land fires in Indonesia are caused by human activities. Local communities are familiar with the use of fires in traditional livelihood activities, such as land and post-harvest vegetation clearing, agriculture preparation, hunting, camping, etc. 

Following severe land and forest fires in 1997-1998, ASEAN Member States (AMS) signed the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) on 10 June 2002 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to prevent, monitor, and mitigate land and forest fires to control transboundary haze pollution through concerted national efforts, regional and international cooperation. The Agreement entered into force in 2003 and has been ratified by all ASEAN Member States. 

Under the Agreement, ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control (ACCTHPC) was established for the purposes of facilitating co-operation and co-ordination among the Parties in managing the impact of land and/or forest fires in particular haze pollution arising from such fires. Indonesia with its experiences has a strong commitment to be host ACCTHPC. This is the evidence that Indonesia would like to give a big contribution in the ASEAN region to – 2 – address forest and land fire issues beside its national and local actions. The Centre was just established after the signing of Establishment Agreement at COP-18 to AATHP on August 23, 2023 in Vientiane, Lao PDR. 

Collaboration and cooperation as well as the support from relevant partners/donors are important in order to deal with forest and land fire problem in ASEAN Countries. The partnership could be implemented through capacity building, technical assistance, funding or other kind of assistances through ACCTHPC. Networking with partners also should be maintained so that best practice, experience and lesson learnt can be regularly shared.

 Output:
1. to socialization the function of ACCTHPC and to develop collaboration and cooperation on forest and land fire management to support the achievement and NDC Target of AMS, FOLU Net Sink 2030 as well as Haze Free ASEAN by 2030.
2. to increase and enhance the role of NMC, Competent Authorities and related partners or donor in supporting ACCTHPC 

Targeted audience:
– Government
– Researcher
– Academics
– Private sector
– Student
– NGO/CSO