Eight oil palm companies face legal action
Eight oil palm companies face legal action
MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): North Sumatra's Plantation Agency
will recommend that North Sumatra Governor Rizal Nurdin take
legal action against eight oil palm plantation firms in the
province for their alleged involvement in slash-and-burn
practices, an official said on Monday.
The agency's spokesman, M.E. Girsang, said the sanction for
the problematic companies would include possible closure or stiff
penalties against the firms.
"As a result of the slash-and-burn practices, there are now
360 hot spots in North Sumatra, most of those are in Labuhan
Batu, which has 187 hot spots," Girsang told The Jakarta Post.
Girsang identified the companies as PT Daya Labuhan Indah,
PT Cisadane Sawit Raya, PT Abdi Budi Mulia, state-owned PTPN IV,
PT Wonorejo and PT Indosepadan Jaya.
All but PT Wonorejo are located in Labuhan Batu regency. The
company operates in South Tapanuli. They all denied the
allegations.
Two other companies, PT Torganda and PT First Mujur
Plantation, refused to fulfill the agency's summon for
questioning.
"We do not know how fire suddenly burned 75 hectares of our
plantation," said PT Abdi Mulia spokesman Suryadi.
"Our company never burns anything," PT Torganda spokesman
Henry replied when asked about the fire.
Meanwhile, the Center for International Forestry Research
(CIFOR) and the International Center for Research in Agroforestry
(ICRAF) are developing strategies to tackle forest fires in
cooperation with the Indonesian government, a joint statement
from the research bodies said on Monday.
The joint statement of the two organizations based in Bogor,
West Java, said fire fighting was only a temporary solution for
the complex forest fire situation.
"Instead, CIFOR and ICRAF have put forward a multistage plan
that could be set in motion immediately, backed up by medium to
long-term intervention," the statement said.
Along with fire-fighting efforts, teams of experts will
investigate the current fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra by
mapping the fires with satellite photography and conducting field
interviews to provide information on the location of the fires.
"However, any action will have to take into account the
fundamental socioeconomic forces driving the fires and offer
practical alternatives to burning," it said.
The research bodies also asked the government to review the
draining of peat lands, which increased the flammability of the
peat and to develop alternative methods in land preparation and
use that would reduce both fire and smoke, it said.
Most of the other fires are set by farmers preparing land for
crops, but fire is also used as a weapon in land tenure conflicts
between plantation companies and local communities.
"Burning is the cheapest method to clear land, with large-
scale operations like palm oil and logging concerns starting
about two-thirds of the fires," the statement said.
Citing their researchers' findings, the two organizations
concluded that nearly four million hectares of agricultural land,
over three million hectares of lowland forest and 1.5 million
hectares of peat and swamp forest were burnt in 1997/1998.
However, 60 percent of the damaging particulate matter and
carbon dioxide in the haze came from peat fires.
"Controlling burning in peat areas is the highest priority to
control the haze," said the statement.
The fires have destroyed enormous amounts of biodiversity,
especially in lowland forests. The government is advised to work
with large-scale operations to develop and implement appropriate
timber-harvesting practices and effective forest fire management.
(42/03)