Aubrey Belford Reuters 27 Jun 13;
JAKARTA | Thu Jun 27, 2013 8:47am EDT
(Reuters) - Indonesian investigators are building criminal cases against eight Southeast Asian companies they suspect of being responsible for raging fires that have blanketed neighboring Singapore and Malaysia with hazardous smog.
The Environment Ministry last week named the firms for their alleged role in Southeast Asia's worst air pollution crisis in 16 years, which has raised concerns over public health and hurt business and tourism in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Owners of five of the plantations have denied any wrongdoing. Reuters has not been able to contact the others.
A 2009 law carries tough penalties for environmental crimes, although such regulations have rarely been enforced due to Indonesia's endemic corruption and sprawling geography.
And investigators could find it hard to pin the blame on specific firms because of the complex ownership of palm oil concessions and pulp and paper holdings on Indonesia's Sumatra island where most of the fires are burning.
But outrage from Singapore as well as environmental groups is putting pressure on Jakarta. Fires are used to clear land on plantations and can burn for weeks because of peat deposits below the surface.
"This is the first major haze since the new law. This is the first big opportunity for the government to use it," said Peter Kanowski, deputy director general of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), a conservation organization based in Indonesia.
Three of the firms under investigation are owned by government-linked companies in Malaysia. Unlike Singapore, Malaysia has not publicly admonished Indonesia over the smog.
An initial on-the-ground investigation by dozens of officials in Sumatra's Riau province found evidence of fires on land licensed to PT Tunggal Mitra Plantations and PT Bhumireksa Nusa Sejati, said Sudariyono, the Environment Ministry's enforcement chief.
The two firms are owned by the world's largest palm oil planter by landbank, Malaysia's Sime Darby Bhd, via its Indonesian subsidiary Minamas Plantation.
In a statement, Sime Darby said the latest satellite maps from the U.S. government agency NASA, overlaid with the company's own map of its concessions, showed no fires at Tunggal Mitra Plantations.
There were three fires in Bhumireksa Nusa Sejati's concession area. However, they were outside the company's operating area, said Sime Darby, which is backed by state funds in Malaysia.
Sime Darby cited Indonesian regulations, imposed in the 1980s, under which local farmers can use concession land without restrictions. The firm said it has not cleared land since April.
Some farmers illegally clear land using "slash and burn" techniques during the June to September dry season.
Fourteen people had been arrested this week for lighting fires, national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amir said. He declined to say if any were employed by the named companies, but added there was evidence of fires at concessions owned by all eight firms.
Sudariyono said investigators had visited concessions of all the firms and were using GPS data to establish the location of fires. They were focusing initially on "going after the local companies" and would pursue any links to parent firms later.
He declined to give more details, but said more companies would be investigated.
TOUGH PENALTIES
The Environment Ministry and the police are leading the investigation and say they will decide if there is enough evidence to recommend the attorney general's office pursue the case further.
A team of 58 police officers and nine officials from the Environment Ministry were on the ground in Riau, the epicenter of the fires, police said.
Action has rarely been taken against plantation companies since the first major Indonesian haze crisis in 1997, when smog disrupted shipping and air travel across Southeast Asia.
Under the 2009 law, a person or company found guilty of starting a forest fire can face up to 10 years in jail and 10 billion rupiah ($1 million) in fines.
A guilty company can also have their profits seized, operations shut down and be sued for damages.
Palm oil is a key ingredient for products such as cooking oil and biofuel. Global demand has nearly doubled in seven years to more than 51 million tonnes (1 tonne = 1.102 tons), with much of it produced in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Industry data show oil palms cover about 5 million hectares in Malaysia and more than 8 million hectares in Indonesia.
Among the other firms Sudariyono listed was PT Multi Gambut Industri, known officially in Malaysia as PT TH Indo Plantations.
It is a unit of the Malaysian state-linked Pilgrimage Fund Board. Kuala Lumpur-listed TH Plantations Berhad, also a unit of the fund, manages TH Indo Plantations.
TH Plantations said it had "zero-burning" policies, adding it had observed instances of open burning outside the boundaries of the estates it managed. ($1=9,925 rupiah)
(Additional reporting by Janeman Latul, Michael Taylor and Andjarsari Paramaditha in Jakarta, Niluksi Koswanage in Kuala Lumpur, and Eveline Danubrata in Singapore; Writing by Randy Fabi. Editing by Jason Szep and Dean Yates)
WWF calls for zero burn laws as hotspot analysis fingers pulp and palm oil industries
WWF 27 Jun 13;
Singapore – WWF has renewed calls for zero-burn policies to be enacted and enforced, as satellite hotspot analysis showed the single jurisdiction of Riau Province, Sumatra as the location of over 88% per cent of the fire hotspots that have seen Singapore and parts of Malaysia blanketed with the worst haze and pollution since 1997.
The call comes as Sumatra NGO coalition Eyes on the Forest (EoF) - WWF-Indonesia, Jikalhari and Wahli Riau - released a new analysis linking NASA indications of fire hotspots to concession areas. Fire and haze information is now available online through interactive maps through a joint project of EoF and Google Earth Outreach.
According to the most current analysis, more than 9000 fire hotspots were mapped in Sumatra by NASA satellites between 1 and 24 June, with more than 8000 in Riau province. Nearly 40 per cent overlapped with large scale pulpwood concessions or oil palm plantations.
WWF-Indonesia and EoF caution that ground truthing will be required and is underway to better indicate responsibility for the fires. Concession holders have legal responsibilities over concessions but it does not necessarily follow that the companies are responsible for lighting the fires.
Many are likely linked to the supply of palm oil. WWF-Indonesia this week released a report detailing the supply of oil palm fruit illegally grown inside the iconic Tesso Nilo National Park.The hotspot analysis shows the Tesso Nilo forest complex (the national park and two adjacent selective logging concessions) to be a significant source of haze, with 449 hotspots (6 per cent of the overall total for Riau) recorded there.
“With this data in hand, WWF stands ready to help governments and agencies across the region”, said Ms Elaine Tan, CEO, WWF-Singapore, “Fires in Riau are a global issue that affects us all due to serious carbon emissions they cause.”
Fully 88 per cent of hotspots were in peatland, where fires can trigger huge emissions of carbon.
Dr Efransjah, CEO of WWF-Indonesia, added that “This is a complex issue, but with the right data, the appropriate enforcement and company protection of their lands, we can make a difference”.
In Riau province, long a centre of controversy over clearing and plantation establishment for pulp and paper production, the most recent analysis shows 30 per cent of the hotspots overlapping with pulpwood concessions, 1,075 linked to Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd (APRIL) and its suppliers and 1,027 on concessions linked to Asia Pulp and Paper (APP).
Some 9 per cent (696) of Riau’s hotspots showed within well managed large scale oil palm plantations. These areas likely overlap at least in part with the concession boundaries of palm oil majors but this has yet to be verified by EoF.
The devastating scale and impact of the recent fires has prompted WWF to renew the call to fully implement and enforce “Zero Burning” --- a set of prescriptions that restricts the use of fire for land clearing or replanting of industrial tree crops. Instead of fire, heavy machines are used to crush, chip, pile or bury plant residues.
Indonesian law prohibits the use of fire to clear land for any agriculture, and this applies to both corporations and small land holders. Also reflecting the regional significance of these fires, ‘Zero Burning’ is an important part of ASEAN’s (Association of South East Asian Nations) Haze Action Plan and the recently signed legally binding Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.
WWF calls for the Indonesian government authorities to take control of land allocation for palm oil and strictly enforce the “Zero Burning” laws that apply to both smallholders and large corporations. Particularly for smallholders, assistance to manage the land without fire should be provided by the government, with the support from corporations and NGOs. Moreover, WWF calls for pulp and palm oil industries to stop the use of fire in their own concessions and to control any fires that come onto their land.
Further field investigations are needed to quantify the major causes of fires outside known pulpwood concessions and oil palm plantations. WWF suspects some of them are related to non-corporate oil palm plantation development as “available” lands in the Riau have often been used to produce palm oil fruit to sell to large companies like the case of Tesso Nilo. WWF calls for palm oil companies to take responsibility for the full supply chain of palm oil and ensure that fruit or processed oil bought from third-party providers are not fueling the haze.
Forest protection responsibility of all parties
Antara 27 Jun 13;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said the protection of tropical forests in Indonesia was the responsibility of all parties, including the central and regional governments, private companies, and the civil society.
Speaking at a function to open Intenational Tropical Forest Alliance workshop here on Thursday, President Yudhoyono said all parties should be responsible in protecting the tropical forests in the country.
The workshop was themed Promoting the Sustainability and Productivity of Oil Palm, Pulp, and Paper.
"We all have responsibility but we cannot do it alone. In my view, partnership is important. Central and regional governments, private companies, and the civil society should cooperate to prevent deforestation and to promote reforestation," President Yudhoyono noted.
Besides, he said the developed countries should play their role in reducing green house gas emission while the developing countries were working even harder.
"This is what I call a share of responsibility," the president said.
He pointed out the protection of tropical forests was very important for economic sustainability in the future because Indonesia is a country with the largest tropical forest in the world.
Industries in forestry sector in Indonesia contribute 3.5 percent of the total national economy.
Indonesia is the world`s largest pulp and paper producing country that produces 8 million tons of pulp and 13 million tons of paper per year. Pulp and paper industries can absorb 3.76 million workers.
Indonesia is also the largest oil palm producing country in the world that produced around 26 million tons last year, and with Malaysia they control 85 percent of palm oil production.
(O001)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
