Workshop on Haze and Biomass Burning in Asia

The workshop will focus on biomass burning from a systems perspective, to reveal opportunities with benefits for long-term transformations. It will bring together scientists from different disciplines and countries to review the manifold aspects to solutions to biomass burning in Asia and through this, will identify connections between these aspects. Participants, will explore linkages that could increase acceptance of solutions among diverse stakeholders, this will lead to a joint research proposal to ope-rationalize linkages across sectors and issues, to identify integrated solutions that deliver benefits for a wide range of stakeholders and development goals.

Presentations at the workshop will review the current state of knowledge about the drivers of biomass burning from different sources in South-East Asia and their impacts on human health, ecosystems, climate and the economy. Most importantly, presentations will reveal the multiple benefits of potential policy interventions aimed at the reduction of biomass burning to different parts of the society, in order to explore solutions that could gain wide-spread support.

The workshop is being organized as part of a joint project between the IIASA Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases (AIR) Program and the Academy of Sciences of Malaysia (ASM), which aims to develop a science-based, solution-oriented systems perspective on biomass burning (including peat and forest fires) in Asia. The project will devise a plan for collaborative inter-disciplinary follow-up research activities on systems solutions to reduce the adverse impacts of biomass burning while contributing to the development targets. Ultimately, it will contribute to the creation of an interdisciplinary research community in Asia addressing solutions to biomass burning problems through a systems perspective. 

Last edited: 10 September 2018