Types of biomass burning in South East Asia and its impact on health

The frequency and severity of forest fires in Southeast Asia (SEA) have increased significantly since the 1960s, and particularly since the 1980s. Due to climate change and land - use changes, biomass burning have become more ubiquitous. Biomass burning (BB) is a significant issue of the Earth system that profoundly affects and being affected by global climate patterns, vegetation cover, and anthropogenic activities, and this is a major contributor of air pollution at numerous scales, from the local to the global. SEA fires are results from a variety of factors of both natural, the El Niño southern oscillation weather pattern and anthropogenic factors. It has been observed that the frequency and severity of BB episodes, such as excessive pollution, and haze, increase rapidly in ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) and IOD (Indian Ocean Dipole) years, 1997/1998, 2006, 2009 and 2015 are some the examples in which such changes were witnessed. Rice straw open burning contributed the most to total crop residue open burning emissions, accounting for 19-97% which varies from species to species, which is responsible for episodic regional haze events in various parts of SEA. Peat swamp forest has been intensively logged and drained for monoculture cultivation, production of tree crops such as oil palm and Acacia species, and for farming and agribusinesses on both commercial and small scales. As a consequence, a drastic fall has been witnessed in the Southeast Asian peatland forest cover between 1990 to 2015 it has declined from 76% in 1990 to 29% in 2015. Despite the region’s high incidence of fires, there has been lack of scientific research on biomass burning and its impacts in SEA than other parts of the world. This review focuses on biomass burning related issues in Southeast Asia, focusing on the types of fires that occur and the natural and human factors that cause them.