Indonesian clerics issue fatwa against forest fires in bid to stop annual haze

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Smoke rising from a cleared forest land in Pelalawan Regency, Riau province in 2014. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:37pm, 14 Sep 2016

Indonesia’s top Islamic clerical body said on Wednesday it has issued a fatwa against intentionally starting forest fires in a bid to stop the blazes that cloak Southeast Asia in haze every year.

The religious edict by the Indonesian Ulema Council said it was “haram”, or against Islamic law, for Muslims to start fires on purpose in forests or on plantation land.

The Koran states that we are not allowed to harm the environment, and forest burning causes damage not only to the environment but also to people’s health

Huzaemah Tahido Yanggo, head of the body’s fatwa council

“The Koran states that we are not allowed to harm the environment, and forest burning causes damage not only to the environment but also to people’s health – even neighbouring countries are complaining,” Huzaemah Tahido Yanggo, head of the body’s fatwa council, said.

The fires and subsequent smog occur annually to varying degrees in the archipelago’s Sumatra island and the Indonesian part of Borneo during the dry season, and are started to quickly and cheaply clear land for palm oil and pulpwood plantations.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar welcomed the fatwa and said she hoped Islamic preachers would spread news of it to local communities: “The most important follow-up is communicating it to the public.”