Asean guidance warns against false forest restoration as haze risk worsens

Key points:

• Rules out monoculture tree farms on peatlands that worsen fire and heat risks.

• Backs peatland rewetting and funded community prevention to curb haze and emissions.

• Requires clear risk fit, proven effect, viability under uncertainty and zero mitigation conflict.

• Unlocks private capital toward Southeast Asia’s US$129bn annual adaptation needs by 2030.

 

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A new Asean Taxonomy guidance warns against false adaptation solutions that worsen fire and extreme heat risk, as the region battles the worst transboundary haze in a decade.

The guide rules out financing fast-growing monoculture plantations disguised as catchment “afforestation” and “restoration” projects that plant trees over drained peatlands or intact natural forests.

Planting a large number of non-native trees in water-stressed areas can dry up local rivers, while replanting over drained peats or intact natural forests ignores drivers of fire risks and conflicts with mitigation objectives, it says.

Among the adaptation measures to address extreme heat and peatland and forest fires driving transboundary haze are peatland rewetting, as well as fire prevention and community fire management initiatives.

Peatland rewetting, in particular, “addresses the risk that made Indonesian peatlands a recurrent disaster source,” the guide says, highlighting that the 2015 fires released more carbon per day at their peak than the entire US economy.

Meanwhile, preventing peat and forest fire through community-led prevention, detection and early suppression “addresses fire risk in fire-prone managed forest and peat landscapes, which becomes acute under El Niño drought,” it says. Preventing peat and forest fires simultaneously also avoids large emissions from carbon stores.

However, the guidance cautions against presenting suppression capacity as a substitute for peatland rewetting, or relying on unpaid volunteer labour which “transfers the burden to the communities least able to carry it”. 

Launched by the Asean Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) and Asean Taxonomy Board, the guidelines lay out four key criteria for identifying credible adaptation solutions: clear risk fit, clear effect, working under uncertainty and no conflict with mitigation objectives.

The guide is intended as a “voluntary, non-binding complement to the Asean Taxonomy,” said Francisco Ed. Lim, ACMF chair and chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission Philippines.

Lim co-chairs the mitigation co-benefit and Adaptation for Resilience (mARs) taskforce with Abigail Ng, chief sustainability officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

By defining what counts as credible adaptation activities and metrics to measure adaptation outcomes, the guide aims to mobilise more private capital, alongside public resources, for the region’s US$129bn annual adaptation needs by 2030.

“As climate hazards become more frequent and severe across Southeast Asia, the need to strengthen resilience is increasingly urgent,” said Ng. The guide will “encourage these actions to be translated into projects and investments, and give capital providers greater confidence to mobilise financing for adaptation.”

The first version prioritises four hazards – flooding, drought, sea level rise and extreme heat – most frequently identified in the national adaptation plans of Asean member states. It currently covers three broad sectors: agriculture, forestry and fishing; water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities; and construction and real estate.

ACMF plans to begin broader stakeholder consultation on the guide, which will inform future interactions, in the first quarter of 2027.

The next version is expected to expand its sector coverage and strengthen approaches for screening maladaptation, which refers to adaptation measures that leave people, assets and ecosystems more exposed to risks than before.

In the first version of the guide, maladaptation is considered under the do no significant harm (DNSH) requirement of the taxonomy. 

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