KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — Climate change and dry season have among others exacerbated this year’s haze problem caused by forest fires and open burning, with little evidence that this will get better for Malaysians in the future.
Even as the haze has mostly cleared up following some rain, environmentalist have suggested instead a simple solution for federal, state, and local governments to tackle one of the factors: plant more trees.
Jehan Bakar, from the Pahang chapter of Malaysian Nature Society said more tree-planting efforts are needed now so that the country will have air-cleaning trees or plants should the country face another haze incident next year.
“There isn’t enough emphasis on planting more trees [to replace what has been taken away]. Instead, you hear about more development projects,” she said when contacted by Malay Mail.
She also said because the haze is considered a foreseeable annual problem, therefore a defence mechanism must be put in place.
“Why do we always wait until something bad happens to decide how to do things better?” she asked.
Referring to a report by the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme, Jehan said trees have proven to help reduce air pollution.
According to a study cited in the report, ‘Tree and forest effects on air quality and human health in the United States’, particulate matter — which is particularly damaging to lungs — is retained on tree surfaces, while leaves act as filters, absorbing polluting gasses.
Jehan said, according to the research, trees can also significantly cool temperatures in cities.
“One full grown tree is as cooling as 10 air conditioning units!” she said.
According to the report, Simone Borelli, an agroforestry and urban/periurban forestry officer with the food and agriculture organisation of the UN, said trees could reduce temperatures in cities up to eight degrees celsius, lowering use of air conditioning and related emissions by up to 40 per cent.
However, the report noted that tree planting must be done right, where species planted should be the ones that are most effective at trapping pollution — typically those with large leaves.
Agreeing that there is a need to plant more trees, Tropical Rainforest Conservation and Research Centre’s executive director Dzaeman Dzulkifli David, said this is also one of the long term solutions for mitigating climate change as a whole.
“Planting trees in urban areas helps improve air quality and lower temperatures. But we also need to halt forest fires across the region, and tackling the root cause is key,” he said when contacted.
An ecologist by training, Dzaeman pointed out that most of these fires take place in degraded forests, the majority of which are on peat swamps.
“We must avoid converting peat swamps into agricultural lands.
“The first step to an ecosystem that is fully functioning is to ensure that these swamp basins are kept intact and flooded,” he said.
Peat swamps act as a carbon store, a habitat for wildlife and has a role in water management.
According to reports by AFP, some of the most serious fires in Indonesia are happening in carbon-rich peatlands — topped with layers of decomposed plant material several metres thick — which become highly combustible when they’re drained of water to be converted into plantations.
Dzaeman, who also has a background in plant science and policy, environmental science and zoology said this is where tree planting efforts come into play, to help restore these degraded forests.
“Trees can contribute to eradicating the haze problem when it is coupled with good forest management of fire prone zones. Manage the peat basins well and we will be seeing fewer haze events,” he said.
Explaining further, Dzaeman said trees can also filter out particulate matter — a form of air pollution.
Citing the Nature Conservancy which conducted a study a few years ago on the impacts of tree planting on air pollution, Dzaeman said a single tree can reduce particulate matter by 15 to 20 per cent.
He also said that it is not the age of the tree that determines its impact, but rather the size.
“Some species of tree can reach its maximum height within 20 to 25 years, while our climax species in Malaysia can take up to 60 years to reach maximum height,” he said.
