Title: Fire and haze in Indonesia: causes, impacts and predictability
Presenter: Robert Field 
 
Abstract: 
Smoke from biomass burning in Indonesia causes some of the worldŐs worst air quality 
episodes. Most of the burning is related to land clearing and preparation, worsened by drier-
than-normal conditions when small fires can spread underground into degraded peatlands. The 
most recent severe event was during the 2015/16 El Ni–o, when hundreds of thousands of 
people in Indonesia and neighboring countries were exposed to hazardously poor air quality for 
two months. While the regulatory frameworks to manage fire in Indonesia are still evolving, I 
will argue that they will benefit from long-lead early warning systems, and that these will work 
as well over Indonesia as any other fire-prone part of the world.