THE INEFFECTIVENESS OF ASEAN AGREEMENT ON TRANSBOUNDARY HAZE POLLUTION (AATHP) IN TACKLING SOUTHEAST ASIA HAZE IN INDONESIA (2015)

Abstract

Haze pollution has become an annual issue in Southeast Asia. The haze pollution itself is mainly caused by a forest fire that happened almost in every year in every dry season in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Transboundary haze pollution basically considered as a common issue within ASEAN member countries. This because of the impact that caused by haze pollution is technically not only damaged Indonesia itself, but also other ASEAN member neighboring countries. Another impact of this haze pollution is the arrising of diplomatic tensions between Indonesia as the country that cause pollution towards the other countries that affected by the pollution from Indonesia. To tackle this problem, ASEAN created regulations regarding the transboundary haze pollution throughout ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) which begin effective since 2003 and has been ratified by all ASEAN member countries in 2014. This thesis aimed to analyze the effectiveness of AATHP that used by Indonesian government in tackling Southeast Asia haze in 2015. The results showed that AATHP is not effective in its implementation in tackling Southeast Asia haze in 2015, especially in Indonesia. The ineffectiveness of AATHP is influenced by three factors. First, there is basically no clear mechanism in implementing AATHP. Second, the lack of willingness of the parties itself to hold its obligations under AATHP. Third, the third parties that delegated by the authority to monitor the implementation of the AATHP itself, is still unformed. Ineffectiveness of AATHP is also technically demonstrated by the lack of changes in behavior among the citizen of Indonesia and the lack of environmental changes for the better future after AATHP itself is formed.