In Brazil's Amazon, in the 30 years following the 1960s, the forests retreated before the onslaught of a government determined to hand over a land without people to its people who did not have land. Huge tracts of forest land in the Amazon vanished, sandwiched between the sawmills and the fires in the area.

In Indonesia, the smog has come back again today because plantation companies set large areas of forest land on fire rather than hack their way through them. The Indonesian government also pursued a policy of handing over huge tracts of land to its people. Both governments blame what has happened on El Ni