ATTRIBUTION FOR LIABILITY
A second related constraint is attribution for liability. ASEAN has considerable technical capacity to detect hotspots and track the movement of smoke haze, but identifying the source of it is not the same as establishing legal responsibility.
Determining who caused a fire requires land concession data, investigation and evidence that can support enforcement. These functions remain largely within national jurisdictions. In essence, ASEAN has far less capacity to determine who should be held responsible and face the consequences.
Singapore has sought to close this gap through its Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, which allows action against entities whose conduct outside Singapore causes or contributes to haze pollution in Singapore. The law tilts towards prevention and deterrence.
During the severe 2015 haze, Singapore’s National Environment Agency used the Act, issuing preventive measure notices and information requests to several regional agribusiness and pulp-and-paper companies.
The Act demonstrates the seriousness of the problem, but also illustrates the limits of relying on national measures to address a regional one: Even where a country has legal powers to act, effective enforcement depends on access to information, cooperation from the source country and sufficient evidence to establish responsibility.
Corporate accountability highlights the same problem. Large plantation companies operate across large areas of forest and peatland, but a fire within or near a concession does not necessarily make them directly accountable.
Holding a company responsible requires transparent concession maps, reliable fire monitoring tied to specific land parcels, credible investigation and enforcement capable of following the evidence to a corporate actor rather than a smallholder. These pertain to national functions, land registries, investigative agencies, courts and local security enforcement that ASEAN has no authority to build or command.
ASEAN can facilitate regional information-sharing, but the decisive steps of investigation, prosecution and enforcement are the prerogatives of member states and remain outside the bloc’s direct control.
