Cash Waqf for Humanitarian Aid: The Case of Transboundary Haze

The occurrence of transboundary haze across several ASEAN countries is considered to be humanitarian crisis, and Malaysia is among the worst affected countries. This kind of man-made disaster should be overcome by providing appropriate solutions in order to prevent continuous calamities toward society regarding safety and health. Moreover, this is in line with the Goal No. 15 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is “Life on Land” that promotes protection and restoration of sustainable terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managed forests, combatting desertification, and halting and reversing land degradation and biodiversity loss. However, there is a high cost incurred in environmental and humanitarian crisis remedies. Waqf is a financial charitable institution that provides basic human needs and has the potential to control adverse impacts on the environment and on human rights. Thus, the objective of the study is to discuss cash waqf as a tool for the environmental and human protection. This study uses a library research method as well as a case study analysis of the IOI Group company. Hence, as a third sector, cash waqf is able to mitigate humanitarian crises caused by anthropogenic hazards to the environment.