Worst haze for 20 years hits the Philippines

Herry Purnomo, senior scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research based in Bogor, Indonesia, says the impact of this year’s haze is even worse than in 1997 when an El Niño ignited forest fires. “The ecosystem resilience today is not as good as in 1997. Deforestation and forest degradation have reduced the adaptive capacity of the ecosystem and local communities to human-made and natural disasters,” Purnomo notes.