No fires by Lonsum

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed PT PP London Sumatra Indonesia (Lonsum), a palm oil and rubber plantation company, has denied an allegation it used a burning method to clear land in its East Kalimantan oil palm plantation.

The company said yesterday that a consolidated investigation team from the province's local government found no forest fires in any of Lonsum's estates.

"The team inspected the estates on Feb. 15 and verified that Lonsum exercises a zero burning policy in clearing its land and that no evidence of burning was found," the company said in a statement.

The team also ascertained that Lonsum is sufficiently equipped in anticipating any forest fires in its estates. The company has put into position 58 heavy machinery equipment to construct fire breaks, four 5,000-liter water tanks, hand sprayers and fire fighting teams.

Lonsum was established in 1906 in North Sumatra. It currently produces a yearly average of five tons of crude palm oil per hectare, which, it claims, is at least 10 percent more than yields achieved by any other South Asian plantation. (gis)