REDUCED BURNING LESSENED AIR POLLUTION DURING DRY SEASON

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000091 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV ECON EAGR ECIN TH BM CH LA SUBJECT: REDUCED BURNING LESSENED AIR POLLUTION DURING DRY SEASON CHIANG MAI 00000091 001.2 OF 002 -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. Chiang Mai's notoriously polluted dry season showed markedly improved air quality conditions from last year. Although the causes of March and April pollution remain the same (crop burning, forest fires, and vehicle emissions),government efforts to make the public more aware of the dangers of burning seem to have had a positive affect this year. Factors working against further progress, however, include high crop and fuel prices that make farmers reluctant to shift away from the expedience of burning, and the ancient practice of man-made forest fires among impoverished hill tribe communities. End Summary. -------------- Looking Back at the Dry Season -------------- ¶2. With rainy season now underway, a look back at the 2008 dry season shows a noticeable improvement in northern Thailand's annual March and April air quality crisis from recent previous years. The number of days when PM10 (small particles in the air that can cause health problems)exceeded the hazardous threshold (120 micrograms per cubic meter) decreased from 30 days in 2007 to only six days during the first five months of this year. The peak PM10 volume in the air also dropped from the very high and dangerous peak of 396 micrograms per cubic meter in 2007 to 206 micrograms per cubic meter in 2008. -------------- Causes of Poor Air Quality -------------- ¶3. Agricultural burning, man-made forest fires, and vehicle emissions are the primary sources of pollution in Chiang Mai, said a local environmental official. Agricultural burning remains the leading cause of air pollution. Although government efforts to suppress the age-old slash and burn techniques of northern Thai farmers have been partially successful domestically (see para 7),burning of crop fields in Burma, Laos, southern China, and Vietnam means this problem is a regional one that is less easily fixed. ¶4. Vehicle emissions contribute the least to overall pollution and are centralized in the urban Chiang Mai area. Also within Chiang Mai, the geographic nature of the city as a river valley nestled between mountain ranges means the immediate area traps air with high PM10 content that cannot easily dissipate without sufficient winds or rain. -------------- Crop Burning Under High Global Prices -------------- ¶5. Crop burning, seen as the main cause of poor air quality in March and April, is largely considered by farmers to be an efficient and productive means of transitioning from the harvest of the dry season to the initial planting of the rainy season. One farmer told us that his wife would be angry if he stopped burning for fear that a lower yield would result in low sales and leave the family hungry. ¶6. Unfortunately, the recent spikes in the prices of agricultural commodities has increased the propensity to burn crop fields rather than to use the environmentally friendly option of plowing and adding organic fertilizers. For poor highland farmers who tend to grow corn because of the low cost of necessary inputs, burning is viewed as a means of quick crop turnover, which is important for this low income bracket. In the rice sector, the appeal of high prices is pushing farmers to be even more change-averse with regard to production methods. Moreover, the high price of fuel makes plowing rather than burning an unappealing option. -------------- Government More Active . . . -------------- ¶7. With the aforementioned factors working against change in agricultural practices, the provincial government has sought a more active role in reducing crop burning. Its efforts to reduce crop burning since 2007 are considered to be having a positive impact, although the practice remains relatively widespread. After last year's acute air quality crisis, national and local level government committees were formed to address the issue. The Chiang Mai governor led a campaign to stop burning and to educate the public about the negative health impact of the practice. CHIANG MAI 00000091 002.2 OF 002 ¶8. Chiang Mai is currently the only province in Thailand that legally bans burning and makes the practice punishable by fine or arrest. Enforcement is uneven, however. Strict enforcement leads to angry farmers which means fewer votes for locally-elected officials. So to keep enforcement more genteel, officials relied on warnings and public notices against burnings. Local officials told us that arrests for burning were few in Chiang Mai, as villagers tended to cooperate with these warning by law enforcement officers. However, many Chiang Mai farmers reportedly avoided penalty by burning their fields at night. -------------- . . . But Sends Mixed Message -------------- ¶9. Chiang Mai's provincial government appeared to operate with a different set of priorities when it came to advising the public about unhealthy air threats. While this year Chiang Mai did see a marked reduction in the frequency and intensity of hazardous air days, the government elected not to issue public health warnings during the peak period. Chiang Mai University radio reported that the Governor pleaded with local media to "tone down the air pollution situation" to avoid harming Chiang Mai's lucrative tourism industry. At one point he publicly assured tourists that the air quality was not a public health concern this year. -------------- No Smokey Bear -------------- ¶10. Forest fires are increasingly a major cause of pollution in Chiang Mai, now accounting for 40% of the region's air pollution, according to local officials. Almost always man-made, these fires are ignited easily in the dry foliage of mountainous areas as the tail end of the dry season. The fires are purposefully set by minority hill tribes who believe that burning the soil before the rainy season will generate a high yield of wild mushrooms and edible plants that can be sold and consumed locally. With these man-made fires taking place in remote areas and being set by poor and isolated communities, enforcement of the burning ban is costly. Moreover, there is no Thai "Smokey Bear" campaign to dispel these ancient myths about forest fires leading to more wild vegetation. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶11. Chiang Mai can (safely) breathe a sigh of relief that it survived a dry season with improved air quality conditions. The provincial government's successful public awareness campaign appears to have had a real positive impact, with the peak levels of PM10 almost half of what they were last year. Nonetheless, further progress in improving dry-season air quality will require the region to address pollution sources beyond Thai farmers; namely, burning in neighboring countries and man-made forest fires in remote hill tribe communities. MORROW