It is a fact that the Indonesian forest fire is not an issue happening only recently; it is a problem that has been present and persisting for years. It would be ridiculous to say that the local farmers or the MNCs were ignorant of their actions and how they contribute to the problem. Each small farmer or MNC actually knows that they are contributing to the forest fires yet nothing is done to salvage the problem.

Why?

By tying the problem with the idea of tragedy-of-the-commons, it might suggest a possible explanation.

This idea was first proposed by Hardin (Hardin 1968) and it is defined as the consumption of a natural resource by each of many individuals who have unrestricted access to the resource which eventually leads to the destruction of the resource (Gardner and Stern 2002).

Each farmer or MNC wants to maximize their gains, be it for agricultural or palm oil (economical?) purposes. Each tree in the forest they burn down and eventually make space for agriculture or for growing palm trees would bring them some form of gains. At the same time, each tree they burn would reduce the number of trees available for themselves and for other farmers or MNCs. However, each farmer or MNC knows that the total number of trees available in the forests is large and the number of trees each burnt down is only a small portion of the large population. Each farmer or MNC also know that any tree in the forests that they do not burn would also be burnt by other farmers or MNCs. Hence, each farmer or MNC will be driven to burn down as much forests as possible.

The above could very suggest an explanation for the “vicious” cycle of the forest fires.