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By: Azam Hawari, Lawyer, Food, Ocean, and Land Use (FOLU) Japan and Southeast Asia, ClientEarth
Co-contributors:
Hannah Chan, Senior Lawyer, Resources, Energy, Mobility (REM) Japan and Southeast Asia. ClientEarth
Kuberan Hansrajh Kumaresan, Head of Legal Advocacy, RimbaWatch
Corporate accountability for forest and land fires and transboundary haze varies across the region. Indonesia provides administrative, civil and criminal avenues to address prevention failures, environmental damage and restoration, while Singapore’s Transboundary Haze Pollution Act applies extraterritorially and enables claims for losses caused by overseas haze. Malaysia’s territorial environmental legislation makes cross-border claims more difficult, although common law tort claims may remain possible.
At the regional level, the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution imposes prevention and cooperation duties on States but provides no mechanism for direct corporate claims or compulsory adjudication. Authorities and litigants should make full use of restoration procedures under Indonesia’s Supreme Court Regulation No. 1/2023.
Regionally, stronger accountability requires robust preventive enforcement as well as better evidence sharing and early assessment of enforceability, alongside stronger transboundary mechanisms, including dedicated legislation and bilateral enforcement agreements.
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