Webinar | Mekong-ASEAN Environmental Week 2021: Transboundary Haze Pollution in Southeast Asia

The Mekong-ASEAN Environmental Week (MAEW), started since 2019, is a week-long forum for local communities, civil society groups, academia and members of the public in the Mekong and ASEAN region to come together to share their work and ideas in solidarity with each other. This year, the theme was: Peoples' Voices in World Crises.

One of the sessions was a panel discussion on transboundary haze pollution in Southeast Asia. Jia Yaw enjoyed moderating this session tremendously as it was a unique opportunity to look at the Indonesian haze and the Mekong-region haze. The discussions touched on the social and environmental impacts of the growth of agricultural industries, how indigenous agricultural practices are often blamed unfairly, the developments of public interest environmental litigation and more.

The panelists were:

1. Tara Buakhamsri (Greenpeace Thailand)

2. Wahyu Pendana (Walhi, Friends of the Earth Indonesia)

3. Shamila Ariffin (Sahabat Alam Malaysia)

The MAEW forum was broadcast on eight Facebook channel pages in three native languages and English in three countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand. In Thailand, which is the broadcasting hub, the Thai Public Broadcast Service (Thai PBS) and the Thai public television also broadcast MAEW2021 all week.