topic: Haze

topic: Haze

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As fires ravaged Indonesia in 2023, some positive trends emerged, data show
- Indonesia’s 2023 fire season saw 1.16 million hectares (2.87 million acres) of land and forest go up in flames, and while this was five times higher than in 2022, experts highlight a positive trend.
- The fires were exacerbated by an intense El Niño weather system, unlike in 2022; the last time similar conditions prevailed, in 2019, the area affected by fires was much larger, suggesting fire mitigation efforts may be working.
- Most of the burning occurred in scrubland and areas of degraded forest rather than in intact forests, meaning greenhouse gas emissions from the burning were also much lower than in 2023.
- But a worrying trend highlighted by the numbers is that severe fires are now occurring in four-year cycles, intensified and exacerbated by the impacts of a changing climate.

Amazonia in flames: Unlearned lessons from the 2023 Manaus smoke crisis (commentary)
- In 2023 the city of Manaus, in central Amazonia, found itself covered in dense smoke from burning rainforest, with levels of toxic PM 2.5 particulates even higher than those experienced that year during the pollution crisis in New Delhi, India.
- The governor of Brazil’s state of Amazonas, where Manaus is located, blamed the neighboring state of Pará for the smoke, a politically convenient theory we show to be false.
- The fires responsible for the smoke were south of Manaus in an area of Amazonas impacted by the notorious BR-319 highway, where a proposed “reconstruction” project would have disastrous environmental consequences by opening vast areas of rainforest to the entry of deforesters.The BR-319 highway project is a top priority for politicians in Amazonas, who take pains not to admit to the project’s impacts. The project’s environmental license is not yet approved, and the Manaus smoke crisis should serve as a warning as to how serious those impacts would be.
- This text is a commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.

2023 fires increase fivefold in Indonesia amid El Niño
- Nearly 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres, an area 15 times the size of Jakarta) burned in Indonesia between January and October 2023, according to environment and forest ministry data; El Niño and burning for new plantations contributed to this.
- 2023 was the worst fire season since 2019, when that year’s El Niño brought a prolonged dry season and fires so severe, they sent billowing smoke across Malaysia and Singapore.
- In the absence of local jobs, some people burn abandoned farmlands and turn them into new plantations as a way to make a living and survive.

In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Wildfire poses significant health risks to Indonesians, particularly children under 5, who especially suffered the effects of the 2019 haze.
- Farmers have long used fire in cultivation, and the risks to health and environment have grown significantly as deforestation and drainage have made peatlands particularly susceptible to fire.
- In 2022, women from the Indonesian part of Borneo formed “the Power of Mama,” a unit to fight hazardous wildfires and their causes.

Burn now, pay later: Fines trickle in from Indonesia’s crackdown on forest fires
- Ten years since a landmark lawsuit over forest fires, the palm oil company at the center of the case has finally begun paying its $23 million fine in installments.
- The case against PT Kallista Alam (KA) was supposed to set an example for how the government is cracking down on companies that allow burning in their concessions, but has instead highlighted the difficulty of collecting on the fines.
- KA has paid just $3.6 million of its total fine, and despite a 2021 regulation barring fine payments in installments, the company has been allowed to stagger its payments over time.
- The company is one of 22 sued by the government since 2013 for fires; 14 of these have been found liable and ordered to pay a combined 5.6 trillion rupiah ($353 million), but only one has paid in full.

As fire season worsens, Indonesian activists report four companies for burning

JAKARTA — Activists have reported four companies — two industrial forest firms and two palm oil firms — to the local police over fires in their concessions in Central Kalimantan as Indonesia is grappling with its worst fire episode since 2019. According to satellite image analysis done Sept. 2-10, the activists found a total of […]
Young firefighter killed battling inferno in Borneo orangutan habitat
- Said Jaka Pahlawan, an oil palm plantation foreman, was killed on Sept. 30 while fighting a fire in Indonesia’s Tanjung Puting National Park, a key orangutan habitat.
- The 23-year-old worked for PT Kumai Sentosa, a plantation company that had been fined in 2019 by an Indonesian court over wildfires on its concession.
- The fire this time around was in the national park, where Jaka and other employees went to tackle the blaze as government firefighters responded to fires elsewhere.
- Friends of the young firefighter told Mongabay that Jaka was a dedicated professional who had participated in conservation activities in the area.

Indonesian children locked out of school as El Niño haze chokes parts of Sumatra & Kalimantan
- Poor air quality over several Indonesian cities and outlying rural areas has forced local authorities to cut class times or close schools altogether.
- Air pollution on Oct. 5 in one area of Palangkaraya far exceeded the level at which air quality is classified dangerous to human health.
- The government of Jambi province has closed schools until Oct. 7, after which it will review whether to reopen for in-person teaching.

Indonesia’s peatland restoration claims in question as fires flare up
- The Indonesian government says companies have restored 3.7 million hectares (9.1 million acres) of peatland — an area larger than Belgium — in an effort to prevent the annual peat fires.
- But this claim has come into question following an increase in the number of hotspots in peatlands, including inside oil palm concessions that had burned in past years and went up in flames again this year.
- An investigation by The Gecko Project found the government appeared to have inflated the figure of 3.7 million hectares, with the actual figure derived from the government’s own methodology closer to 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres).
- Fires on carbon-rich peatlands are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions from Indonesia, which in turn is one of the world’s biggest emitters.

Sumatran province hangs on for late rain as El Niño fires bring heat and sickness
- Wildfires have returned to Indonesia as the country enters its dry season amid an El Niño year.
- In Palembang city, new respiratory infections will likely soon eclipse the total diagnosed in 2022.
- Meteorology officials expect the monsoon to begin in parts of Sumatra and Borneo islands in October, but warn dry conditions will persist in much of Indonesia until November.

El Niño leads to more fires and toxic air pollution in Indonesia
- Indonesia saw an increase in land and forest fires recently as the El Niño weather phenomenon brings a prolonged dry season.
- Official data show a fourfold increase in hotspots up to September, compared with the same period last year.
- Residents in some major cities like Palembang have fallen ill due to toxic smog from the fires.
- Carbon-rich peatlands, which have been protected and partly restored through government policies and measures, are also burning, with more than 14,000 hotspots detected in peat landscapes in August alone.

Palm oil, pulpwood firms not doing enough to prevent peat fires, analysis shows
- More than 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of oil palm, pulpwood and other concessions across Indonesia are at high risk of being burned because of companies’ failure to restore the peat landscape, according to a new analysis.
- This represents more than half of the Switzerland-sized area of tropical peatland throughout Indonesia that’s considered a high fire risk.
- With many concession holders still not doing enough to restore the peat landscapes in their concessions, researchers question the effectiveness of government mandates and certification schemes in preventing peat fires.
- The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) credits its early fire detection system with helping member concessions achieve lower numbers of hotspots than noncertified concessions, but groups like Greenpeace dispute the findings.

Indonesian oil palm firm slapped with $61m fine for fires on its plantation
- Indonesia’s Supreme Court has upheld a $61 million fine against palm oil company PT Rafi Kamajaya Abadi for fires on its oil palm plantation in western Borneo.
- The fires burned an area spanning 2,560 hectares (6,326 acres), or more than seven times the size of New York City’s Central Park.
- To date, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry has filed lawsuits against 22 companies for fires on their concessions, 13 of which have been found liable and must pay fines after exhausting all avenues of appeal.

As dry season looms, Sumatra villagers hope their peat restoration pays off
- Community-led efforts to restore degraded peatlands in Indonesia’s Riau province could be put to the test in early 2023 as the dry season sets in.
- Riau is the perennial epicenter of the burning season on Sumatra Island, and is expected to have a more intense dry season after three consecutive years of wetter-than-usual conditions due to La Niña.
- A broad coalition of local governments, communities, researchers and NGOs have been working to restore peatlands that had been drained in preparation for planting, with the hope that restoring water levels will prevent burning.
- As part of the restoration programs, communities are also adapting their farming practices, learning to prepare the land without the use of fire, and picking crops that are suited for the wetter soil conditions.

Indonesia’s Supreme Court rules President Widodo not liable in 2015 fires
- Indonesia’s highest court has ruled President Joko Widodo not liable in the 2015 fires, overturning three previous court rulings that found him to be liable for the disaster.
- The plaintiffs, a group of citizens and environmental activists affected by the 2015 fires, have lambasted the court’s decision, saying it raises questions over the government’s seriousness in tackling the annual fire problem.
- The plaintiffs also questioned the process behind the ruling, saying they hadn’t been given the chance to refute new evidence presented by the government.

In Indonesia’s forest fire capital, the dry season brings yet more burning
- The onset of the dry season in Indonesia’s Riau province has seen flare up and multiply, some of them believed to have been set deliberately.
- More than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of land has burned so far this year, a sharp increase from the 169 hectares (417 acres) in the first three months of 2022.
- The number of fires has prompted the provincial government to declare an emergency status and call for urgent measures, including cloud seeding to induce rainfall.
- Police have arrested nine people for suspected arson; although the practice is banned by law, farmers and plantation operators often use fire as a cheap tool to clear their concessions of vegetation ahead of planting.

As dry season starts in Indonesia, risk of fires — and haze — looms
- There’s a degree of risk that Southeast Asia may see the return of transboundary haze this year from forest fires in Indonesia, according to a new report by a Singaporean think tank.
- The key driver of that risk is the currently high price of palm oil on the world market, which could pose an incentive for farmers in Indonesia, the world’s top producer of palm oil, to expand their plantations, including by clearing land with fire.
- In anticipation of the dry season, which starts in July, some local governments in Indonesia are putting in place policies to prevent fires, including sanctions for companies using fire to clear their concessions.

Sumatra palm plantations the usual suspects as unusual burning razes peatlands
- Fires have swept through large swaths of peatland forest in the western part of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island since the start of the year, an area that usually sees much smaller, controlled fires.
- Environmental activists say they suspect the fires might be linked to palm oil companies with plantations in and around the burned areas.
- They warn the burning could get worse in the coming months, with the dry season in this part of Sumatra expected to peak only in August.

Indonesia’s new epicenter of forest fires shifts away from Sumatra and Borneo
- Indonesia, a country that suffers from recurring fires every year, saw an increase in land and forest fires this year, with flames burning an area twice the size of London.
- Two-thirds of the burned area was in the provinces of West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara, which until recently experienced much less burning than the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
- Experts attribute the increase in fires in the two provinces to the lack of firefighting capacity at the local level and the extreme dry weather.

The past, present and future of the Congo peatlands: 10 takeaways from our series

This is the wrap-up article for our four-part series “The Congo Basin peatlands.” Read Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four. In the first half of December, Mongabay published a four-part series on the peatlands of the Congo Basin. Only in 2017 did a team of Congolese and British scientists discover that a […]
Carbon and communities: The future of the Congo Basin peatlands
- Scientific mapping in 2017 revealed that the peatlands of the Cuvette Centrale in the Congo Basin are the largest and most intact in the world’s tropics.
- That initial work, first published in the journal Nature, was just the first step, scientists say, as work continues to understand how the peatlands formed, what threats they face from the climate and industrial uses like agriculture and logging, and how the communities of the region appear to be coexisting sustainably.
- Researchers say investing in studying and protecting the peatlands will benefit the global community as well as people living in the region because the Cuvette Centrale holds a vast repository of carbon.
- Congolese researchers and leaders say they are eager to safeguard the peatlands for the benefit of everyone, but they also say they need support from abroad to do so.

Holding agriculture and logging at bay in the Congo peatlands
- The peatlands of the Congo Basin are perhaps the most intact in the tropics, but threats from logging, agriculture and extractive industries could cause their rapid degradation, scientists say.
- In 2021, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced that it was planning to end a moratorium on the issuance of logging concessions that had been in place for nearly two decades.
- The move raised concerns among conservation groups, who say the moratorium should remain in place to protect the DRC’s portion of the world’s second-largest rainforest.
- Today, timber concession boundaries overlap with the peatlands, and though some companies say they won’t cut trees growing on peat, environmental advocates say that any further issuance of logging concessions in the DRC would be irresponsible.

Layers of carbon: The Congo Basin peatlands and oil
- The peatlands of the Congo Basin may be sitting on top of a pool of oil, though exploration has yet to confirm just how big it may be.
- Conservationists and scientists argue that the carbon contained in this England-size area of peat, the largest in the tropics, makes keeping them intact more valuable, not to mention the habitat and resources they provide for the region’s wildlife and people.
- Researchers calculate that the peatlands contain 30 billion metric tons of carbon, or about the amount humans produce in three years.
- As the governments of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo work to develop their economies, they, along with many policymakers worldwide, argue that the global community has a responsibility to help fund the protection of the peatlands to keep that climate-warming carbon locked away.

The ‘idea’: Uncovering the peatlands of the Congo Basin
- In 2017, a team of scientists from the U.K. and the Republic of Congo announced the discovery of a massive peatland the size of England in the Congo Basin.
- Sometimes called the Cuvette Centrale, this peatland covers 145,529 square kilometers (56,189 square miles) in the northern Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and holds about 20 times as much carbon as the U.S. releases from burning fossil fuels in a year.
- Today, the Congo Basin peatlands are relatively intact while supporting nearby human communities and a variety of wildlife species, but threats in the form of agriculture, oil and gas exploration and logging loom on the horizon.
- That has led scientists, conservationists and governments to look for ways to protect and better understand the peatlands for the benefit of the people and animals they support and the future of the global climate.

Palm oil firm that dried out its land held not liable for fires that followed
- Indonesia’s highest court has upheld a ruling clearing a palm oil company of responsibility for fires in its concession in Central Kalimantan province.
- Environmental experts say this flies in the face of evidence showing that the firm didn’t have adequate equipment to tackle fires and that the fires started in areas it had recently cleared and drained.
- They warn the verdict sets a worrying precedent for future prosecutions of companies with fires on their concessions, and counters Indonesia’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use.

Indonesian pulpwood firms told to protect peat are doing the opposite: Report
- Pulpwood companies in Indonesia are continuing to plant on degraded peatlands inside their concessions, despite being required to protect and restore these ecosystems, a new report shows.
- The report focuses on 16 pulp and paper producers and found all of them in violation of peat protection and rehabilitation regulations.
- Among the violations are planting and harvesting acacia trees in previously burned peatlands, and digging new canals to drain peatland.
- Among the companies highlighted in the report are subsidiaries of two of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world, APP and APRIL.

Indonesia eyes less severe fire season, but COVID-19 could turn it deadly
- This year’s forest fire season in Indonesia is expected to be less severe than in previous years, but the haze from the burning could still compound the coronavirus crisis in the country.
- Favorable weather conditions and ongoing efforts to restore peatlands point to a “relatively benign” fire season, and hence less risk of severe haze, a new report says.
- Even before the pandemic, haze from forest and peat fires was known to increase cases of respiratory infections fourfold in the hardest-hit areas; combined with COVID-19, haze this time around could stretch the country’s overwhelmed hospitals beyond breaking point.
- Indonesia has recently become the global epicenter of the disease, registering more daily cases than India and Brazil, with the country’s doctors’ association warning the health care system has “functionally collapsed.”

Wildfires turn up the heat on farmers growing Indonesia’s ‘hottest’ pepper
- Farmers in the south of Indonesian Borneo have built up a reputation and a lucrative industry around their Hiyung chili pepper, said to be the hottest in the country.
- The pepper grows well in the swampy peat soil of the region; farmers here began planting it after their rice crops failed in the same acidic soil.
- But the chili peppers, which local officials say have elevated farmers’ income to six times the local average, are under threat from the perennial fires that sweep across Indonesia’s drained peatlands.

In Indonesia, pulp and paper firms stoke demand that may drive deforestation
- Pulp and paper companies are expanding in Indonesia by building new mills, putting more pressure on existing pulpwood plantations to increase their production.
- According to a new NGO report, this could reverse a declining trend of pulpwood-related deforestation in recent years, with producers seen as likely to clear more forests for plantations in order to meet the demand from the new mills.
- Activists, therefore, have called on the government to provide protection foron all natural forests in Indonesia from such an expansion.

Peatland on fire again as burning season starts in Indonesia
- Indonesia’s annual fire season has started again, with hotspots detected in 10 provinces.
- Some of the fires have been detected in protected areas with large swaths of peatland.
- The government says it’s preparing to carry out cloud seeding to induce rainfall in affected areas.
- However, environmentalists have called for more traditional methods of law enforcement to prevent fires breaking out in the first place.

Paper giant APP linked to Indonesia peat clearing despite sustainability vow
- Greenpeace Southeast Asia has identified nearly 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) of peatland clearing in pulpwood plantations in Sumatra supplying Asian Pulp & Paper.
- Analysis of satellite imagery showed the clearing began in August 2018 and continued through June this year, despite APP having a “no peatland” and “no burning” policy that it also imposes on its suppliers.
- Greenpeace and local NGO Jikalahari also found evidence of fires in the concessions in question, which appeared to have been set deliberately to clear the land for planting.
- APP has denied clearing the peatland or setting the fires, calling into question the accuracy of the maps used and saying the fires spread from neighboring farms.

Lockdown should have cleared up Jakarta’s air. Coal plants kept it dirty
- Cities around the world have seen an improvement in air quality as a result of lockdowns and restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Jakarta has been a notable exception.
- A new study shows that persistently high levels of PM2.5 air pollutant in the Indonesian capital come from coal-fired power plants within 100 kilometers (60 miles) of the city.
- Indonesia is set to build more coal-fired power plants in the vicinity of Jakarta in the coming years while maintaining emissions standards that are much laxer than regional or global standards.
- Air pollution has a significant impact on public health and the economy, with studies linking it to higher rates of COVID-19 infection.

Indonesia pushes rice estate project despite environmental red flags
- Planting will begin as soon as this October on a project that will eventually cover nearly a million hectares (2.47 million acres) of peatland in Indonesian Borneo.
- Experts have criticized the project, citing the spectacular failure in the mid-1990s of the identical Mega Rice Project that cleared and eventually abandoned vast swaths of peatlands, paving the way for fires nearly every year since.
- President Joko Widodo says the project is of strategic national importance and will be overseen by the Ministry of Defense.
- But questions remain over the suitability of growing rice in nutrient-poor peat soils, exacerbating the risk of fire by clearing more peatland, and destroying forests that are home to critically endangered orangutans.

COVID-19 may worsen burning and haze as Indonesia enters dry season
- Reallocation of disaster preparedness funds for the COVID-19 pandemic could allow a flare-up of forest fires and haze as the dry season gets underway in Indonesia, with smog from Sumatra reported to have reached Southern Thailand.
- While the country is expected to see a milder dry season than last year, any haze episodes will exacerbate an already precarious public health situation as a result of the pandemic.
- Researchers in Singapore say Indonesian authorities are largely on the right track in preventing fires, which are typically set to clear land for plantations, but more needs to be done in terms of enforcement on the ground.
- They also suggest that small and medium plantation companies — rather than large companies or smallholder farmers — will have the most impact on how severe the fire and haze problem will be.

In Indonesia’s new rice plan, experts see the blueprint of an epic past failure
- The Indonesian government plans to establish 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of rice fields in the peatlands of Borneo, in what experts say is a worrying repeat of a near-identical project in the 1990s that failed.
- The earlier mega rice project (MRP) resulted in vast swaths of peat forests being drained and eventually abandoned as it became clear that the soil wasn’t suited for growing rice.
- The MRP left behind a wasteland of drained and degraded peat that has since burned during the annual dry season, spewing out a choking haze and large volumes of carbon emissions.
- The government says the new rice project will learn from past mistakes, but experts say it would still be unfeasible at that scale and would risk the clearing of even more peat forests.

Forest fires in Indonesia set to add toxic haze to COVID-19 woes
- Forest fires have flared up in Indonesia, marking the start of the dry season and threatening to aggravate respiratory ailments amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
- Haze from forest fires sickens hundreds of Indonesians annually, mostly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo; many of them now suffer chronic respiratory problems that puts them at high risk of suffering acutely from COVID-19.
- Studies done in Italy have linked higher levels of air pollution to higher COVID-19 mortality rates, and experts in Indonesia fear that theory will play out in the country that already has the second-highest death rate from the pandemic in Asia.
- Social distancing measures imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus are already hampering fire prevention programs, and could do the same for firefighting efforts once the dry season intensifies.

As 2020 fire season nears, Indonesian president blasts officials for 2019
- President Joko Widodo has chided his top officials for failing to anticipate the severity of the land and forest fires that hit Indonesia last year, saying they must do better as the 2020 dry season approaches.
- The fires are set annually to clear land for planting, and there had been ample warning that an intense dry season and El Niño weather system would exacerbate the problem in 2019.
- The president threatened again to fire officials for failing to prevent or control fires in their jurisdictions this year, and quashed their excuses that last year’s burning wasn’t as bad as in other countries.
- A key weapon in the government’s fight against future fires is a program to restore degraded peatlands; but activists say the program is opaque and flawed, with little public accountability of the progress made.

Indonesia forest fires push orangutans into starvation mode, study finds

JAKARTA — The fires that raze vast swaths of Indonesian Borneo every year are having a lasting health impact on the region’s critically endangered orangutans that threatens them with extinction, a preliminary study has found. The fires, which in nearly all cases are started to clear land for plantations, such as oil palm, reduce the […]
Indonesia fires cost nation $5 billion this year: World Bank
- Land and forest fires in Indonesia cost the country $5.2 billion in damage and economic losses this year, equivalent to 0.5% of its economy, according to a new analysis from the World Bank.
- Half of the estimated economic loss came from the agriculture and environmental sectors, as fires damaged valuable estate crops and released significant greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, estimated at 708 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
- The actual economic loss could be higher as the World Bank hasn’t taken into account the impacts of the fires on the public health and on the image of Indonesia’s palm oil industry.

Our fires weren’t as bad as in the Amazon, Indonesian officials claim
- Indonesian officials say their handling of forest fires this year has been much better than in other places, including the Amazon.
- But while the claim of a smaller burned area than in the Amazon holds true, the Indonesian fires have churned out nearly double the greenhouse gas emissions as the burning in Brazil.
- Environmental activists also say the much-touted regulations and preventive measures credited with keeping the fires from getting much bigger were largely ineffective, given the scale of the burning.
- Officials say they plan to adopt technological solutions for the upcoming fire season, including cloud seeding and the use of drones for early detection of hotspots.

Paper and fast fashion fan the flames burning Indonesia’s peat: Report
- Pulp and paper giants APP and APRIL continue to source their raw material from plantations located on carbon-rich peatlands in Indonesia.
- The burning of these peat forests prior to planting accounts for much of the fires that have made Indonesia one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, and of the toxic haze that spreads out to neighboring countries.
- A report by a coalition of NGOs warns that these problems could get worse under the companies’ current peat-intensive business model and a relaxing of peat-protection regulations by the government.
- The companies have disputed the scale of the fires attributed to their suppliers’ plantations, and say they already carry out peat conservation initiatives.

Indonesia fires emitted double the carbon of Amazon fires, research shows
- Forest fires that swept across Indonesia this year emitted nearly twice the amount of greenhouse gases as the fires that razed parts of the Brazilian Amazon, new research shows.
- The Indonesian fires pumped at least 708 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in the atmosphere, largely as a result of burning of carbon-rich peatlands.
- The fires were the most intense since 2015 and threaten to set back Indonesia’s commitments to reduce its carbon emissions and contribute to global efforts to slow climate change.

Indonesian fire expert awarded for exposing destruction by plantation firms
- An Indonesian fire expert who has testified in 500 cases against companies accused of allowing fires on their concessions has been awarded the John Maddox Prize for Standing up for Science.
- Bambang Hero Saharjo has weathered a series of threats as well as a retaliatory lawsuit over the years by companies he has testified against.
- The award committee lauded Bambang for continuing “to testify and stand up for the Indonesian people’s constitutional right to a healthy environment, one of the very few scientists in his field who are prepared to do so.”
- A further prize for an early-career recipient was awarded to Canadian pharmacist Olivier Bernard, who has challenged alternative-health proponents pushing for evidence-free high-dose vitamin C injections for cancer patients.

Makers of Oreos, KitKats among brands linked to Indonesia forest fires
- Consumer goods companies behind major brands are getting some of their palm oil from producers linked to fires in Indonesia that have burned an area the size of Puerto Rico.
- The findings, in a report by Greenpeace, identify Mondelēz, Nestlé, Unilever and Procter & Gamble as among the companies exposed to these producers, along with major palm oil traders Wilmar and Cargill.
- These are companies that have committed to sustainable and ethical sourcing of palm oil, and in many cases have blacklisted problematic suppliers.
- Greenpeace attributes their repeated exposure to tainted palm oil on the opacity of plantation ownership in Indonesia, which leads big consumers not to recognize that many producers are part of producer groups with a record of environmental and labor rights violations.

Photos: Peatland fires rage through Indonesia’s Sumatra Island
- Aerial images taken last month in the southern part of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island show fires raging through peatlands and generating massive clouds of haze.
- The fires this year are the worst since 2015, exacerbated by an unusually intense dry season and an El Niño weather pattern.
- The fires are set deliberately to clear land for oil palm and pulpwood plantations, and the smoke they generate has sickened hundreds of thousands of people and spread as far as neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.

Area the size of Puerto Rico burned in Indonesia’s fire crisis
- A spike in fires in September has contributed to the razing of 8,578 square kilometers (3,304 square miles) of land across Indonesia this year, or an area the size of Puerto Rico.
- More areas are expected to continue burning through to the end of the year, but the fire season this year isn’t expected to be as bad as in 2015, when 26,000 square kilometers (10,000 square miles) of land was burned.
- The onset of rains has also reduced the incidence of transboundary haze that previously sparked protests from neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.
- Almost all the fires this year occurred on deforested land that had previously been burned, where the vegetation has not had sufficient time to regenerate after the last fires.

The unrecognized cost of Indonesia’s fires (commentary)
- As Indonesia’s forests go up in smoke, the world may be losing a lot more than we currently understand, argues Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler in this commentary that was originally published in Singapore’s Straits Times on September 30, 2019.
- In one instance, deforestation in Borneo nearly eradicated a potential anti-HIV drug before it was discovered. The near-miss with the drug, Calanolide A, provides one vivid illustration of what is at risk of being lost as Indonesia’s forests are cleared and burned.
- Other local and regional impacts from continued large-scale destruction of Indonesia’s forests may include hotter temperatures, more prolonged droughts, and increased incidence of fires.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

As wildfires roil Sumatra, some villages have abandoned the burning
- Devastating fires and haze in 2015, as well as the threat of arrest, have prompted some villages in Sumatra to end the tradition of burning the land for planting.
- The villages of Upang Ceria and Gelebak Dalam also been fire-free since then, even as large swaths of forest elsewhere in Sumatra continue to burn.
- Village officials have plans to develop ecotourism as another source of revenue, as well as restore mangroves and invest in agricultural equipment that makes the farmers’ work easier.

Indonesian enforcement questioned as fires flare up on the same concessions
- Indonesia says it plans to impose stricter punishment for plantation companies with recurring instances of fire on their concessions, including permanently revoking their permits.
- Several of the companies whose concessions have been burning this year were also at the heart of the 2015 fires.
- Activists say the fact that the problem is recurring on the same concessions highlights the government’s failure to adequately punish the companies.
- A Greenpeace report has found no meaningful action taken against palm oil companies guilty of burning since 2015, and inconsistent enforcement against pulpwood companies during that same period.

A newborn dies amid Indonesia fire crisis, as parents fear for their kids’ health
- A newborn child in Indonesia’s Riau province has become one of the latest fatalities of the haze blanketing large swaths of the region as a result of fires burning through Sumatra’s forests.
- Nearly 30,000 people in Riau alone have suffered from acute respiratory infections during this year’s fires, and nearly 310,000 have been affected by eye and skin irritation, dizziness and vomiting.
- Among those reporting worrying symptoms are pregnant women, one of whom said she’d miscarried five years earlier during a similar haze crisis.
- The fires burn nearly every year, emitting huge amounts of greenhouse gases that have helped keep Indonesia among the top carbon polluters worldwide and spreading haze as far as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Wildfires spread to planned site of new Indonesian capital
- Fires raging across Indonesia have flared up in an area of Borneo where the government recently announced would be the site of the nation’s new capital.
- The location had been chosen in part because it was believed to be at low risk from fires and other disasters.
- Haze from the fires has affected local communities as well as a nearby orangutan rescue and rehabilitation center.
- Authorities have arrested two farmers for setting fires on their land, but activists say they were doing so in a controlled manner and with the permission of local officials.

‘We’ve been negligent,’ Indonesia’s president says as fire crisis deepens
- Indonesia’s government has been negligent in anticipating and preparing for this year’s fire season, the country’s president says.
- The fires, set mostly to clear land for planting, have razed huge swaths of forest and generated toxic haze that has spread as far as Malaysia and Singapore.
- The president’s acknowledgement of the government’s lack of preparation comes in the wake of his own ministers apportioning blame for the fires to other parties.
- Activists say the government has little moral standing to go after the companies that have set their concessions ablaze, noting that the government itself has refused to take responsibility for failing to do enough to tackle similar fires in 2015.

Worldwide deforestation rising despite bold commitments, report finds
- In 2014, the New York Declaration on Forests set out bold commitments to stem deforestation, cutting it in half by 2020 and ending it entirely by 2030, along with global forest restoration targets.
- But a new assessment finds that, globally, the loss of forests is on the rise, at rates that are around 40 percent higher than five years ago when the agreement was signed.
- The report’s authors say that, despite the “sobering” findings, the assessment should serve as a call to action that more needs to be done to address deforestation and forest degradation.

Indonesian minister draws fire for denial of transboundary haze problem
- Indonesia’s environment minister continues to deny that fires in the country are sending toxic haze to neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
- An environmental activist warns that this stance, which goes against the data presented by Malaysia, risks undermining Indonesia’s credibility.
- The haze is an annual irritant in diplomatic ties between Indonesia and its neighbors, with much of the burning taking place to clear land for oil palm and pulpwood plantations.
- Malaysia has offered to help Indonesia fight the fires, which have sickened tens of thousands of people in Sumatra and Borneo, threatened an elephant reserve, and churned more than 100 millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Photos: Forest fires rage on Sumatra oil palm concessions
- As Indonesia’s annual fire season gets underway, swaths of carbon-rich peat forests are being razed, and the subsequent toxic smoke has blanketed parts of Jambi province on the island of Sumatra.
- Dozens of hotspots have been detected on farmland, oi palm concessions, and even inside a protected peat forest in the province, according to the local disaster management agency.
- Mongabay visited one of the burning concessions, where minimally equipped workers are fighting to put out fires that have been burning for days without end.
- The workers deny that the oil palm company set the fire on the concession, claiming it started in a neighboring village. In 2015, three company employees were charged with setting fires on the same concession, though none were ever convicted.

Diplomatic row heats up as haze from Indonesian fires threatens Malaysia
- The number of fire hotspots in Indonesian Borneo and Sumatra has increased nearly sevenfold in a four-day period in early September.
- The surge has prompted calls from Malaysia, which has historically been affected by haze from fires in Indonesia, for its Southeast Asian neighbor to get the burning under control.
- The Indonesian government has refuted complaints that the recent increase in hotspots has resulted in transboundary haze.
- Indonesia faces what could be the worst fire season since 2015, fanned by an El Niño weather pattern.

Haze from fires, Indonesia’s national ‘embarrassment,’ are back
- Indonesia is experiencing its worst annual fire season since 2015, with the cross-border spread of haze once again threatening to spark a diplomatic row with neighbors Malaysia and Singapore.
- The government has acknowledged that measures adopted in the wake of the 2015 fires to prevent a repeat of that disaster may have fallen short, including efforts to restore drained peatlands and drill wells to provide water for firefighters.
- President Joko Widodo, scheduled to visit Malaysia and Singapore later this week, says he feels embarrassed by the return of the fires and haze, and has ordered the firing of officials found to have failed to tackle the problem.
- At the local level, however, governors of the affected provinces appear to be taking the matter lightly: saying the haze isn’t at a worrying level, offering a reward for shamans who can summon rain, and proposing questionable theories about the causes of the fires.

Top court holds Indonesian government liable over 2015 forest fires
- Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ordered that the government carry out measures to mitigate forest fires in the country, following a citizen lawsuit filed in the wake of devastating blazes in 2015.
- The decision upholds earlier rulings by lower courts, but the government says it will still challenge it, claiming that the circumstances that led to the 2015 fires were due to mismanagement by previous administrations.
- The plaintiffs in the lawsuit say they just want the government to implement common-sense measures to prevent the fires from recurring, and which existing laws already require it to carry out.
- The fire season is already underway again this year, as companies and smallholder farmers set forests ablaze in preparation for planting.

Jakarta residents sue government over ‘world’s filthiest’ air quality
- A group of citizens is suing the Indonesian government, including the president, over the poor air quality in Jakarta, which in recent weeks has ranked as the worst in the world.
- The plaintiffs say the government has failed to take meaningful action to address the many sources of air pollution, and want it to update its safe threshold for pollutant exposure to be in line with global standards.
- The government, however, has deflected, claiming variously that the air quality data is inaccurate, that the public is to blame for not taking mass transit, and that the problem isn’t as severe as it’s made out to be.
- While studies show vehicle emissions account for up to 70 percent of Jakarta’s air pollution, the number of days per year with unhealthy air has actually doubled since an award-winning improvement of the public transit system, indicating other sources play a greater role.

Video: Meet Indonesia’s go-to expert witness against haze-causing plantation firms
- Bambang Hero Sahajaro is the Indonesian government’s chief expert witness against plantation firms accused of causing wildfires.
- Last year, Bambang was sued by a company whose practices he testified against in court. The lawsuit against him was eventually thrown out, though observers say it is part of a trend of companies fighting back against their prosecution by trying to silence environmental defenders.
- “I won’t back off, not even one step, because there are already many cases waiting for me,” he told Mongabay. “I will keep fighting for the people’s constitutional right to a healthy environment.”

Palm oil, logging firms the usual suspects as Indonesia fires flare anew
- Fires have flared up once again on concessions held by palm oil and logging companies in Riau province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
- For many of the companies involved, this isn’t the first time fires have sprung up on their land, prompting activists to question the government’s ability to enforce its own regulations against slash-and-burn forest clearing.
- Much of the affected area is peat forest, some of it being developed in violation of a ban on exploiting deep peatland, whose burning releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
- A failure by the government to collect on fines levied against the few companies prosecuted for setting fires on their concessions means there’s little deterrent effect for other companies that see slash-and-burn as the cheapest way to raze forests for plantations.

Indonesia’s threat to exit Paris accord over palm oil seen as cynical ploy
- A top Indonesian minister says the country may consider pulling out of the Paris climate agreement in retaliation for a European policy to phase out palm oil from biofuels by 2030.
- Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime affairs, says Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, can follow in the footsteps of the United States, which has declared its withdrawal from the climate pact, and Brazil, which is considering doing the same.
- The threat is the latest escalation in a diplomatic spat that has also seen Indonesia and Malaysia, the No. 2 palm oil producer, threaten retaliatory trade measures against the European Union.
- The EU says its policy is driven by growing consumer concerns about the sustainability of palm oil, which in Indonesia is often grown on plantations for which vast swaths of rainforest have had to be cleared.

Study finds palm oil industry mimics Big Tobacco on health issues
- A study published in the WHO Bulletin has likened the palm oil industry’s tactics to those of the tobacco and alcohol lobbies to obscure the direct and indirect health impacts of the commodity.
- The study found mixed messages in the scientific literature about the health impacts of palm oil, not least because several studies have been authored by an industry lobby group.
- The indirect health impacts were clearer, and included illnesses caused by smoke from the slash-and-burn clearing of forests for palm plantations.
- The researchers called for a multipronged approach to address these impacts, while acknowledging that replacing palm oil with other vegetable oils in the same volumes would require far more land.

Borneo study explores links between farm expansion and deforestation
- A nearly two-decade study of land-cover change in Borneo has identified a positive correlation between the loss of forests and the expansion of plantations, primarily for oil palms.
- The findings undermine the long-held position of industry and government representatives that plantation expansion doesn’t contribute to deforestation and that it makes use of already cleared land.
- The study also highlighted a slowdown in rates of both deforestation and plantation expansion, which the researchers attributed to declining process of crude palm oil, more stringent regulations on forest clearing, and wetter weather in 2017.
- While the expansion of plantations hit a new low in 2017, activists say the possible illegal clearing of peat forests continues unabated in Indonesian Borneo, despite repeated calls to the government for action.

Hazy figures cloud Indonesia’s peat restoration as fire season looms
- An El Niño weather system in the early months of 2019 could see forest fires flare up once again in Indonesia.
- The government rolled out a slate of measures following disastrous fires in 2015, centering on the restoration of degraded peatlands that had been rendered highly combustible by draining for agriculture.
- While the number and extent of fires since then have declined significantly, activists attribute this more to milder weather in the intervening years, rather than the government’s peatland management and restoration measures.
- Activists have also questioned figures that suggest the target of restoring 24,000 square kilometers (9,300 square miles) of peatland by the end of 2020 has been almost achieved, saying there’s little transparency about the bulk of the required restoration, being carried out by pulpwood and plantation companies.

End of funding dims hopes for a Sumatran forest targeted by palm oil growers
- The Harapan lowland rainforest in Sumatra, one of only 36 global biodiversity hotspots, could be lost to oil palm plantations within the next five years.
- The Danish government, which since 2011 has funded efforts to restore the forest and keep out encroaching farmers, will cease its funding at the end of this year. No other sources of funding are in sight to fill the gap.
- The Danish ambassador to Indonesia says local authorities need to take on more of the responsibility of protecting the forest.
- He says relying on donor funding is unsustainable over the long term, and has called for greater emphasis on developing ecotourism and trade in non-timber forest products.

Second environmental expert sued over testimony against palm oil firm
- A palm oil company convicted and fined for negligence over fires in its concession is now suing one of the expert witnesses who testified against it in court.
- Bambang Hero Saharjo, an expert in fire forensics, is the second witness hit with a lawsuit by the company, JJP, which is seeking hefty damages on an apparently trivial technicality.
- The company dropped an earlier lawsuit against another expert who testified against it, but its latest move has sparked concerns among activists about a rising tide of litigation to silence environmental defenders.
- Indonesia has regulations in place to protect environmental defenders and witnesses giving testimony, but critics say there is little awareness among law enforcers about these protections.

Runners’ woes at Asian Games highlight Jakarta’s air pollution problem
- Athletes competing in the just concluded Asian Games in Jakarta suffered from some of the worst air quality in a city hosting a major sports event in recent years.
- Levels of PM10 and PM2.5, classes of particles in the air, exceeded World Health Organization guidelines for the duration of the Games, despite vehicle restrictions imposed by the Jakarta government.
- Activists say officials are overlooking the fact that more than half the air pollution in Jakarta is caused by factors other than vehicle emissions, including several coal-fired power plants.
- Officials in the central government have denied that there’s an air pollution problem, but those in the city administration have acknowledged the issue and called for a holistic approach to tackling the range of factors.

Fires and haze return to Indonesia as peat protection bid falls short
- Fires on peatlands on Indonesia’s Borneo and Sumatra islands have flared up again this year after relatively fire-free dry seasons in 2016 and 2017.
- The government has enacted wide-ranging policies to restore peatland following the disastrous fires of 2015 that razed an area four times the size of Grand Canyon National Park.
- However, the fires this year have sprung up in regions that have been prioritized for peat restoration, suggesting the government’s policies have had little impact.
- Officials and activists are also split over who to blame for the fires, with the government citing smallholder farmers, and environmentalists pointing to large plantation companies.

Forest fires threaten Asian Games as hotspots flare up in Sumatra
- Fires have started to flare up in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province, which will co-host thousands of athletes, officials and visitors for the Asian Games, the continent’s biggest sporting event, later this month.
- Officials are worried about a repeat of the devastating 2015 fires that burned up an area three times the size of the state of Delaware, and that generated haze that sickened half a million people.
- After relatively mild fire seasons in 2016 and 2017, thanks to longer rainy spells, dry conditions are expected to intensify this year, at least through September, raising the risk of more fires and possibly haze.

Typo derails landmark ruling against Indonesian palm oil firm guilty of burning peatland
- A district court in Indonesia has shielded an oil palm company from a Supreme Court ruling ordering it to pay $26.5 million in fines for burning peatlands in a high-biodiversity area, citing a typo in the original prosecution.
- The verdict has stunned activists, who had hoped that the original guilty verdict would set a strong precedent for the judicial fight against environmental crimes.
- The government is appealing the latest ruling, which, ironically, is fraught with typos that — under the same legal logic — would render it just as invalid as the original guilty verdict.

Indonesia enlists plantation companies to ensure haze-free Asian Games
- Organizers of the Asian Games in August are wary of the major sporting event being hit by haze from brush and peat fires, an annual occurrence in Sumatra, where one of the host cities is located.
- The government has called on pulpwood and oil palm companies with concessions in fire-prone areas to take steps to restore degraded peatlands and prevent fires during this year’s dry season, which runs from June through September.
- The companies are legally obliged to restore areas of deep peat, and some are fast-tracking their other fire-prevention programs in light of the Asian Games.

How Indonesia’s Seruyan district became an epicenter of fires and haze

In the leadup to the release of the second installment of Indonesia for Sale, our series examining the corruption behind Indonesia’s deforestation and land-rights crisis, we are republishing the first article in the series, “The Palm Oil Fiefdom.” This is the third part of that article. The first part described a secret deal between the son of Darwan Ali, […]
Video: Arkani, the Dayak known as Jenggot Naga — Dragon Beard
- “The palm oil fiefdom” is an investigation by Mongabay and The Gecko Project, an initiative of the UK-based research house Earthsight.
- The article reveals how Darwan Ali, the former head of Indonesia’s Seruyan district, presided over an elaborate scheme to use shell companies as vehicles to make money from major palm oil firms.
- Short films produced in conjunction with the article feature some of those affected by Darwan’s licensing spree, including an indigenous man from Borneo named Arkani.

Pulp and paper giant sues Indonesian government over peat protection obligation
- A company owned by the billionaire Tanoto family of Indonesia is seeking to overturn a government decision to invalidate its plans to operate on peatlands.
- The parties are clashing over new rules issued by the Indonesian government in the wake of the 2015 fire and haze crisis.
- The government recently rezoned some areas within the company’s concession for conservation, but the company argues it should be allowed to keep operating on them for now.

How unhealthy is the haze from Indonesia’s annual peat fires?
- Indonesia’s vast peat swamp zones have been widely drained and dried for agriculture, rendering them highly flammable, and they often burn on a massive scale, blanketing the country and its neighbors in smoke.
- A recent survey on perceptions of the fires showed that while different groups have varying levels of concern about forest loss or carbon emissions, everyone agrees that protecting public health is a top priority.
- However, the first step to solving a problem is to agree on how critical the issue is.

A roar for nature in Indonesia: Q&A with the poet behind ‘Indigenous Species’
- “Indigenous Species” is a book-length poem that highlights environmental crimes and violations of indigenous peoples’ rights in Indonesia.
- The literary work has been performed at international events since 2013 and was published last December.
- Mongabay caught up with poet Khairani Barokka to discuss her book, activism and environmental issues in literature.

The Palm Oil Fiefdom
- This is the first installment of Indonesia for Sale, an in-depth series on the corruption behind Indonesia’s deforestation and land rights crisis.
- Indonesia for Sale is a collaboration between Mongabay and The Gecko Project, an investigative reporting initiative established by UK-based nonprofit Earthsight.
- This article is the product of nine months’ reporting across the Southeast Asian country, interviewing fixers, middlemen, lawyers and companies involved in land deals, and those most affected by them.

Indonesia for Sale: in-depth series on corruption, palm oil and rainforests launches
- The investigative series Indonesia for Sale, launching this week, shines new light on the corruption behind Indonesia’s deforestation and land rights crisis.
- In-depth stories, to be released over the coming months, will expose the role of collusion between palm oil firms and politicians in subverting Indonesia’s democracy. They will be published in English and Indonesian.
- The series is the product of nine months’ reporting across the country, interviewing fixers, middlemen, lawyers and companies involved in land deals, and those most affected by them.
- Indonesia for Sale is a collaboration between Mongabay and The Gecko Project, an investigative reporting initiative established by UK-based nonprofit Earthsight.

These 3 companies owe Indonesia millions of dollars for damaging the environment. Why haven’t they paid?
- The Indonesian government has been trying to collect penalties from three companies found guilty of damaging the environment.
- One of the companies is PT Kallista Alam, an oil palm plantation firm convicted of cut-and-burning rainforest in the Leuser Ecosystem.
- Another is PT Merbau Pelalawan Lestari, a timber plantation firm that was ordered to pay more than a billion dollars for illegal logging.
- The government plans to establish a task force for the express purpose of collecting the penalties.

Mounting outcry over Indonesian palm oil bill as legislators press on
- The bill cements the right of oil palm planters to operate on peat soil, at a time when President Joko Widodo is trying to enforce new peat protections to stop another outbreak of devastating fires and haze.
- The bill has also been criticized for outlining a variety of tax breaks and duty relief schemes for palm oil investors, although those provisions have been dialed back — but not completely eliminated — in the latest draft.
- The bill’s main champion in the House of Representatives is the Golkar Party’s Firman Soebagyo. He says it will help farmers and protect Indonesian palm oil from foreign intervention.
- Responding to mounting public criticism, some cabinet members recently asked the House to abandon the bill, but Soebagyo, who is leading the deliberations, says they will continue.

Indonesia blocks major artery in haze-causing Mega Rice canal network
- The Ministry of Public Works and Housing is narrowing and installing dams in one of the largest canals built as part of the failed Mega Rice Project in the mid-1990s.
- Authorities are negotiating with local residents who rely on some of the canals for transportation through the peat swamps of Central Kalimantan.
- Officials say that to really solve the problem of dried out and flammable peat, not just the largest canals but the smaller ones too will have to be blocked.

Norway bans government purchasing of palm oil biofuel
- The growth of the palm oil industry has been blamed for a host of damaging environmental impacts, such as deforestation and carbon emissions.
- Research indicates that biofuel made with palm oil may be even worse for the climate than fossil fuels.
- The Norwegian parliament responded to these impacts by voting in a regulation to its Public Procurement Act to stop using biofuel palm oil-based biofuel. The resolution further stipulates that the “regulatory amendment shall enter into force as soon as possible.”
- Conservationists laud the move, but say more countries need to follow suit. They recommend the EU’s biofuel policy be updated to reflect concerns about palm oil.

FSC to investigate Korean conglomerate’s palm oil operations in Indonesia
- The group submitted the complaint to the FSC on May 15, 2017, together with evidence that Mighty Earth said showed the Korindo Group has, since 2013, cleared more than 30,000 hectares (over 74,000 acres) of rainforest for palm oil production in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and North Maluku.
- “The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has formally accepted a Policy for Association (PfA) complaint submitted by Mighty Earth against Korindo Group (Korindo) for ‘Significant conversion of forests to plantations or non-forest use’,” the certification body confirmed in a statement released today.
- In its Policy for the Association of Organizations with FSC (PfA), the certification body lists a number of “unacceptable forest-related activities” in which companies cannot directly or indirectly engage — essentially giving the FSC a means of protecting its reputation and “ability to deliver on its mission” should a company with certified operations be found to be responsible for unsustainable practices in some of its other operations.

Indonesia’s plantation lobby challenges environmental law
- The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) and the Indonesian Association of Forestry Concessionaires (APHI) lodged a judicial review with the Constitutional Court last month.
- They want the court to edit the 1999 Forestry Law and the 2009 Environment Law so that companies are not strictly liable for fires that occur in their concessions.
- They also want to the court to extend the ban on using fire to clear land to small farmers.

Indonesian governor asks president to let timber firms drain peat in his province
- West Kalimantan Governor Cornelis asked President Joko Widodo to let some timber plantation companies drain peatlands, even though Jakarta banned the practice last year.
- In a letter to the president dated Apr. 25, Cornelis makes an economic argument for allowing the companies to proceed as usual.
- Cornelis is a member of an international consortium of governors dedicated to fighting climate change; Greenpeace said his request to the president amounted to a “double standard.”
- His request came just days after Jakarta sanctioned a timber firm in his province for building an illegal canal through the Sungai Putri peat swamp forest.

Greenpeace slams paper giant over loophole in fire-prevention policy
- APRIL is Indonesia’s second-largest paper firm. It sources pulpwood from a vast network of suppliers in the archipelago country.
- It has come to light that APRIL’s fire-prevention policy exempts short-term suppliers. These compose a major portion of its supply base.
- Some suppliers defined as “short term” by APRIL have actually been supplying the company for years, according to Greenpeace.

Green groups want paper giant to stop using drained peat in Indonesia
- Indonesia’s vast peat swamp zones have been widely drained and dried for agriculture. The practice underlies the devastating annual fires that in 2015 burned an area the size of Vermont and sickened half a million people.
- Asia Pulp & Paper is Indonesia’s largest paper company. About a quarter of its vast holdings consist of peat.
- The government has banned any new development on peatlands. NGOs want the company to go farther, rewetting and restoring all of the peat in its concessions, even that which has already been planted with acacia.

HSBC financing tied to deforestation, rights violations for palm oil in Indonesia
- HSBC has helped several palm oil companies accused of community rights violations and illegal deforestation pull together billions in credit and bonds, according to research by Greenpeace.
- The bank has policies that require its customers to achieve RSPO certification by 2018 and prohibiting the bank from ‘knowingly’ engaging with companies that don’t respect sustainability laws and regulations.
- Greenpeace contends that HSBC, as one of the world’s largest banks, should commit to a ‘No deforestation, no peat, no exploitation’ policy and should hold its customers accountable to the same standard.

How local elites earn money from burning land in Indonesia
- Members of political parties and local figures are organizing farmers to burn land for sale to a variety of large and small buyers, a new study shows.
- These elites pocket most of the profits from this destructive and illegal activity. Village officials who administer land documents and the workers who carry out the burning also receive a cut.
- For the fires to stop, the study says, these actors must be disempowered through law and policy.

Korean company bans forest clearing for Indonesian palm oil concessions
- Korindo came under scrutiny last year when U.S.-based environmental group Mighty Earth published a damning report on their practice of burning to clear land.
- The report “Burning Paradise” was published on September 1, 2016 and alleged that Korindo had caused 30,000 hectares of deforestation and an estimated 894 fire hotspots since 2013.
- The illegal, yet commonly-used practice of companies burning land to clear it, leads to an annual haze from forest and peatland fires.

The year in tropical rainforests: 2016
- After 2015’s radical advancements in transparency around tropical forests between improved forest cover monitoring systems and corporate policies on commodity sourcing, progress slowed in 2016 with no major updates on tropical forest cover, resistance from several governments in releasing forest data, and some notable backtracking on zero deforestation commitments.
- But even without the pan-tropical updates, we know that deforestation increased sharply in the Brazilian Amazon, which accounts for the world’s largest area of tropical forest.
- Low commodity prices may have bought some relief for forests.

As accusations fly, paper giant appears to stand by its replanting of burned peat in Sumatra
- After the 2015 fire and haze crisis, the Indonesian government barred plantation firms from replanting the peatlands that had burned in their concessions. Instead, the companies were ordered to restore the dried-out peat soil to prevent future fires.
- Some agribusinesses, however, are said to be resurrecting their drainage-dependent acacia and oil palm estates in violation of the directive from President Jokowi’s administration. One of them is Asia Pulp & Paper, an arm of the Sinar Mas conglomerate.
- APP declined to comment substantively for this article, except to imply that everything it does is in accordance with the rules. But a director in the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry explained that the company had been authorized to replant burned peat with acacia trees because, he said, it would serve to mitigate certain fire risks.
- NGOs surveyed by Mongabay rejected the contention that planting peat with drainage-dependent acacia constitutes a valid means of peatland restoration, although some were more understanding of the government’s position than others.

Green groups raise red flags over Jokowi’s widely acclaimed haze law
- Indonesian President Joko Widodo last week codified a much-praised moratorium on peatland development into law.
- Though widely reported as a permanent ban on clearing and draining the archipelago’s carbon-rich peat swamps, the prohibition will only last until the government finishes mapping and zoning the nation’s peatlands, although stronger protections have been put in place.
- Norway praised the policy’s legalization, announcing it would release $25 million to support the sustainable management of Indonesia’s peatlands.
- Some environmental groups tell Mongabay that the regulation pays insufficient heed to the scientific evidence of what is required to prevent the wholesale collapse of peatland ecosystems.

69m people breathed toxic smoke from 2015 Indonesian fires: study
- The study was led by a researcher from Newcastle University and published in the journal Scientific Reports.
- The findings support an earlier study which concluded that 100,300 people are likely to have died prematurely as a result of last year’s fires.
- Researchers said they could have drawn more reliable conclusions if local hospitalization data had been available, but such data is scarce.

Parents who say Indonesia’s haze killed their children testify in citizen suit
- Indonesian President Joko Widodo has promised to prosecute companies linked to last year’s fire and haze disaster.
- In July, though, the Riau Police terminated investigations into 15 companies the environment ministry had listed in connection with the burning.
- At least two lawsuits challenging the dropping of the cases are now underway.

Hectare by hectare, an indigenous man reforested a jungle in Indonesia’s burned-out heartland
- In 1998, a Dayak Ngaju man named Januminro started buying up and reforesting degraded land not far from Palangkaraya, the capital of Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province.
- Today the forest spans 18 hectares and is home to orangutans, sun bears and other endangered species.
- Januminro uses funds from an adopt-a-tree program to operate a volunteer firefighting team. He has big plans to expand the forest.

Fires ravaged forests in Indonesian palm oil giant Astra’s land in 2015
- In September last year, Astra Agro Lestari earned plaudits for issuing a zero-deforestation pledge.
- A new Aidenvironment report tracks the company’s progress implementing its commitment.
- A major issue is Astra’s policy for preventing fires on its land. Fires raged across its concessions last year, but the firm has not elaborated how it plans to stop burning.

Indonesia seeks foreign funds to aid peat restoration drive
- The head of Indonesia’s peat restoration agency said corporate social responsibility and donor funds would not be enough to meet the country’s target.
- Indonesia’s finance ministry is preparing a reform package to provide incentives to invest in peat rehabilitation.
- The environment ministry has moved to issue five timber companies with administrative sanctions for complicity in wildfires burning on their concessions.
- Three companies had their licenses altogether revoked; land from two of those concessions will be converted into a buffer zone for Tesso Nilo National Park.

SE Asian governments dismiss finding that 2015 haze killed 100,300
- On Monday, researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities reported that 100,300 people in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are likely to have died prematurely from haze produced by last year’s devastating agricultural fires in Indonesia.
- Government officials from the three countries cast doubt on the findings.
- One of the study’s authors suggested the figure was actually conservative, as it only accounted for adults and for deaths that could occur within one year of exposure to the haze.

Pulp and paper supplier denies draining peat on island near Singapore
- Haze-causing fires are continuing to burn in Indonesia, especially in West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo.
- The CEO of PT RAPP, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s second-largest pulp and paper company, said the canals his firm was accused of digging recently in order to drain peat soil for planting were actually meant to serve as reservoirs to aid firefighting in the burned-out concession.
- Indonesia’s peatland restoration agency is investigating the company’s activities.

Indonesian government to investigate Korean palm oil giant over burning in Papua
- The Indonesian environment ministry said they were sending a team to look into Korindo’s operations in Papua.
- A Korindo spokesperson denied that the company had burned land intentionally, suggesting that the fires on its land were the government’s fault, not the company’s.
- Environmental campaigners are touring Korea this week to raise awareness about Korindo’s activities in Papua.

Indonesian military plans anti-haze operation in Sumatra
- Indonesian daily Kompas reported that military officers on Thursday used a speedboat to access a four-hectare fire burning in Simpang Tiga village, Ogan Komering Ilir district.
- This week the newly appointed police chief criticized Singaporean law for the latitude it gave the city state to sanction Indonesian citizens complicit in burning land.
- The Singapore Environment Council continues to push retailers to remove product lines sourced from companies complicit in wild fires.

No fire, no food: tribe clings to slash-and-burn amid haze crackdown
- Indonesia’s vast peat swamp zones have been widely drained and dried for agriculture and made highly flammable. In the dry season they burn uncontrollably when farmers and companies use fire to clear land.
- Last year’s fires sent toxic haze billowing across Southeast Asia, polluting the air above Singapore, Malaysia and other countries. They sickened half a million people in Indonesia and emitted more carbon than the entire EU during the same period.
- To prevent another crisis, President Joko Widodo has ordered a law enforcement crackdown on illegal burning, and already the police have arrested hundreds of people.
- Indigenous tribes who have relied on slash-and-burn for centuries, however, say that they need to be allowed to keep burning, and that they may face a food crisis if they cannot.

Another Indonesian court convicts a company of causing fires
- In December 2015, plantation company PT Bumi Mekar Hijau was acquitted in a civil suit the government had filed against it for letting fires ravage its land in 2014.
- Now, an appeals court has reversed that decision, ordering the company to pay $6 million in compensation.
- Environmentalists wished the company had been made to pay a higher penalty, given that the government was asking for more than $600 million. The 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis cost Indonesia $16 billion, according to the World Bank.

Indonesian police arrest hundreds in connection to burning land
- Indonesia’s top cop on Thursday said the police had arrested 454 individuals over the fires now spreading in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
- The environment minister called on police to “investigate thoroughly” for any links to companies and local government officials.
- Local authorities in some haze-hit areas were assembling makeshift shelters as a precautionary measure to care for people with health problems.

Indonesian parliament to investigate fire-linked firms in Riau

Fire set for peatland clearing in Riau Province, Indonesia in July 2015. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

The Indonesian parliament will form a task force to look into the cancelling of investigations against 15 companies alleged to be complicit in fires in Riau, the country’s top palm oil producing province. Legislators made the announcement on Friday as burning in Sumatra and Kalimantan continued to spread, prompting emergency responses from authorities there. The fires are an […]
Indonesia’s peat restoration chief calls for protection of all peat domes

Drainage canal dug through peat swamp in Riau Province. Photo by Rhett A Butler

The Indonesian agency set up to prevent a recurrence of last year’s devastating forest and peatland fires is calling for all peat domes in the country to be designated as protected areas. Indonesian law already prohibits development on deep peatlands, where the carbon-rich peat soil can extend for many meters below the surface. But the country’s vague peat […]
Company ordered to pay record $76m over fires in Sumatra
- The case concerned fires that burned across PT National Sago Prima’s concession in Indonesia’s Riau province in 2014.
- The company was deemed to have been negligent in failing to prevent the fires because it did not have the proper firefighting equipment and infrastructure on hand.
- The fires were also deemed to have damaged the environment and the economy.

15 fire-linked firms escape prosecution in Indonesia’s Riau
- The police in Riau, Indonesia’s top palm oil-producing province and one of the hardest-hit by last year’s disastrous forest and peatland fires, closed cases against 15 plantation firms that the environment ministry had linked to the burning.
- Luhut Pandjaitan, who on Thursday was replaced as the country’s chief security minister, had expressed concern about the decision not to bring charges against the companies.
- In East Kalimantan, the head of a local policy implementation unit has also complained that the authorities are not moving quickly enough to prosecute errant plantation firms.

Haze epicenter receives environmental award in Indonesia
- The government presented this year’s Adipura Awards in Siak, Riau province.
- The awards are usually handed out in Jakarta.
- Siak also won an Adipura Award, and it was the only district in Riau, which has traditionally been hard-hit by forest and peatland fires, to do so.

Indonesia’s palm oil permit moratorium to last five years
- Indonesia’s chief economics minister made the announcement after a meeting between ministers last week.
- The moratorium will take the form of a presidential instruction to be issued in the near future, he said.
- The forestry ministry has already taken steps to follow up on the moratorium announcement.

Fires begin to appear en masse as Indonesia’s burning season gets going
- Nearly 300 hotspots were detected over Sumatra and Kalimantan on Monday.
- By Wednesday, that number had dropped somewhat, though authorities said they expected the fires to increase as Indonesia enters the dry season.
- Police in Riau arrested a man for burning a small plot of land, while the NGO Walhi said authorities should focus on burning by large companies.

What are South Sumatrans doing to prevent another haze crisis?
- Residents are still digging canals to drain peatlands, which dries out the soil and makes it prone to burning in the dry season.
- Villagers near pulp and paper supplier PT Bumi Mekar Hijau’s concession, much of which burned last year, say they are upset with the company.
- A small number of residents have been enlisted to serve as part of a Fire Care Community Group to patrol the area, but a local official says it needs to be expanded.

No more fires in Indonesia?
- In late 2015, Indonesia featured heavily in the global headlines.
- Between June and November 2015, Indonesia experienced one of its worst fire and haze episodes ever.
- Impressively, during 12 days in Kalimantan with plenty of hot clear days, I saw exactly one small fire. Something seemed to be different.
- This post is a commentary — the views expressed are those of the author.

Peat expert dies from cancer after fighting Indonesian fires
- Suwido Limin was a longtime University of Palangkaraya professor who founded a volunteer firefighting brigade and spent two months in the field during last year’s haze crisis.
- After the fires last year, his condition worsened, and he was diagnosed with cancer in February.
- Limin, an ethic Dayak, also helped draft a regulation on indigenous rights in Central Kalimantan that has been submitted to the provincial government for approval.

How is Indonesian president Jokowi doing on environmental issues?
- In 2014, Joko Widodo became Indonesia’s first head of state to emerge from neither the political elite nor the military.
- The election of the former furniture salesman to the nation’s highest office represented a break from its authoritarian past, and Jokowi, as he is known, was expected to enact major reforms.
- Last year, it was the environment that served up what will perhaps be remembered as the defining challenge of Jokowi’s presidency.
- Jokowi responded to the disaster with some of his most drastic measures.

10 reasons to be optimistic for forests
- It’s easy to be pessimistic about the state of the world’s forests.
- Yet all hope is not lost. There are remain good reasons for optimism when it comes to saving the world’s forests.
- On the occasion of World Environment Day 2016 (June 5), the United Nations’ “day” for raising awareness and encouraging action to protect the planet, here are 10 forest-friendly trends to watch.

Indonesia’s forestry ministry follows through on palm oil permit freeze
- In April, President Jokowi declared a moratorium on new oil palm and coal mining permits.
- Announcing the moratorium is one thing, but seeing it through in decentralized Indonesia is quite another.
- The top brass of the forestry ministry, at least, appears to be in Jokowi’s corner.

Singapore, Indonesia jostle over anti-haze measures
- The Indonesian environment minister said she was reviewing all bilateral collaborations with Singapore and that some would likely be terminated.
- Local governments in the archipelago have been instructed to hold off on any joint programs with Singapore for now.
- Jakarta has protested Singapore’s contention that it reserves the right to fine companies that pollute its air, wherever the firm is located.

Malaysian palm oil giant IOI sues RSPO over suspension
- The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil suspended IOI Group’s sustainability certification in March. Now the company has filed a lawsuit against the association in Zurich, the seat of the RSPO.
- The company characterized the move as a “painful” decision given its “great commitment and attachment” to the RSPO, but maintained that it had been “unfairly affected” by the suspension.
- A leaked memo written by the RSPO’s secretary general reveals the company told him it “has done no wrong” and “prefers if this legal action is kept low profile.”

How effective will Indonesia’s palm oil permit freeze really be?
- Last month, Indonesian president Joko Widodo took a major step toward preventing a repeat of 2015’s fire and haze crisis when he declared a moratorium on new oil palm and mining permits.
- It appears, though, that the licensing freeze will not be passed into law, prompting concerns over the penalties that can be applied to violators.
- A recent Greenpeace study has found 1,404 oil palm concessions the NGO says need to be reviewed because they contravene the the 2011 forestry moratorium brought in under similar terms by Widodo’s predecessor.

Haze-stricken Malaysia proposes drastic new firefighting measures
- Malaysia is experiencing a record heatwave.
- Forest and peatland fires have sent haze into Kuala Lumpur, and contaminated the air elsewhere in the country.
- Near the capital, fires are burning in a giant illegal waste dump.

Haze returns to Kuala Lumpur – but not because of Indonesian fires
- Malaysians are experiencing a damaging heatwave and drought.
- Indonesia’s Sumatra saw a spike in hotspots last week, but the number has dropped in recent days.
- Singapore issued notices to six more companies under its Transboundary Haze Law.

Grim forecast for paper giant’s wood supply raises deforestation fears
- Asia Pulp & Paper spent decades eating through Indonesia’s vast rainforests. Then in 2013, it promised to stop logging natural forests and rely on plantation timber exclusively.
- The company’s huge new mill in Sumatra, though, will require vast quantities of wood when it starts operating this year.
- A new NGO report suggests the company will have to resume deforestation or risk shattering financial losses. APP has dismissed those concerns, promising to import wood chips if needed.

Jokowi bans new oil palm and mining concessions
- On Thursday, President Jokowi announced a freeze on new permits for oil palm cultivation and mining.
- Responses to the announcement were generally positive, although the major industry association for Indonesian palm oil wouldn’t comment on it specifically.
- Rapid oil palm expansion is eating away at the archipelago’s rainforests, contributing to the annual fires and haze problem.

Companies asked to pitch in to Indonesia’s peat restoration drive as early fires flare in Sumatra
- Twenty-two hotspots were spotted in Riau province on Thursday, with rain expected to quell them in mid-April.
- Central Kalimantan province, the worst-hit of last year’s fire and haze crisis, continues to suffer an urgent shortage of doctors, a local politician said.
- A prominent NGO official called on Jakarta to establish a dedicated agency to see through the all-important One Map initiative.

Indonesia’s oil palm maps remain hidden from public view. Why?
- In 2013, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil promised to publish its growers’ concession maps.
- That hasn’t happened, but the RSPO has pledged to make good on its commitment this year.
- Not everyone is on board with the initiative, however, and some doubt it will come to fruition. The public’s ability to monitor the industry hangs in the balance.

Emergency declared as fires reappear in Sumatra
- A state of emergency has been declared in six areas of Riau province where fires are flaring.
- The fires are nowhere near as bad as they were last year, but the emergency status will activate additional resources for fighting them.
- Smoke from the fires has not drifted into Singapore or Malaysia because the winds are blowing in the other direction.

$1m for devising best way to map Indonesia’s peatlands
- Bad maps have undermined Indonesia’s development for a long time.
- For one, they have made it tough to fight the annual forest and peatland fires.
- Now, the government wants to establish a national standard for mapping the country’s peat. It will do so through a competition, the Indonesian Peat Prize.

Indonesia’s peat peninsula being drained into oblivion, study finds
- The practices of agribusiness are causing the Kampar Peninsula to sink below flooding levels, according to a new report by the consultancy Deltares.
- 43.4% of the peatlands on the carbon-rich peninsula have been drained and converted to acacia plantations, mainly by APRIL, and also by Asia Pulp & Paper.
- APRIL disputes the notion that its practices aren’t sustainable, arguing that it has worked hard to protect the remaining forest there.

How can banks spur the palm oil industry toward sustainability?
- Banks are starting to come up with ways to encourage sustainability in the palm oil sector, whose unbridled expansion is fueling deforestation and rights abuses across the world.
- Still, the nascent green finance industry faces a number of obstacles as it seeks to expand its influence.
- These include a lack of transparency with regard to company ownership, misguided valuations of palm oil enterprises, and more.

Norway pledges $50m to fund Indonesia’s peat restoration
- The pledge follows last year’s fire and haze disaster, which burned 2 million hectares of land, mostly peat, in the archipelago.
- The money will support the newly created Peat Restoration Agency.
- The U.S. government also pledged $17 million for peatland restoration in Indonesia’s Jambi province.

Fires burned 26% of forestry giant’s South Sumatra plantations in 2015
- Peat fires burned 293,065 hectares of land within concessions managed by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) suppliers during last year’s haze crisis, finds a new analysis released by a coalition of Sumatra-based environmental groups.
- The findings, say the coalition, put APP’s fiber supply for its new OKI Mill in question since the Indonesian government has indicated that it will prevent replanting of areas burned in 2015.
- For its part, APP has repeatedly stated that its zero deforestation policy applies to all current and future suppliers.

With haze threatening return, Indonesian forestry giant pushes peatlands restoration model
- APP took a direct hit last year when several of its suppliers were identified as having fire “hotspots” in their concessions.
- While APP steadfastly denied that its companies set the fires, it was nonetheless singled out in Singapore, resulting in some stores removing its products removed en masse from shelves and the government threatening multi-million dollar fines.
- APP’s Aida Greenbury discusses the company’s efforts to turn its business model away from deforestation toward better managing natural ecosystems.

Do poor environmental practices affect palm oil firms’ bottom lines on a scale meaningful for investors and financiers?
- Big companies generally don’t see environmental noncompliance as a major economic risk.
- That’s because they tend to think about their business in the short term, rather than in the long term, where most environmental issues come into play.
- The material impacts of environmentally unsustainable practices can also be hard to quanify.

Indonesia appoints conservationist to save country’s declining peatlands
- Indonesian President Joko Widodo has appointed conservationist Nazir Foead to head up a newly-created peatland restoration agency.
- The establishment of the agency, announced Wednesday, is seen as a critical test of Indonesia’s commitment to addressing the underlying causes of the country’s peat and forest fires.
- Foead is a well-connected conservation biologist who was the Conservation Director of WWF Indonesia before heading up the Indonesia office for the Climate and Land Use Alliance, a coalition of philanthropic foundations.

APP to work with 500 villages to combat deforestation
- Forestry giant Asia Pulp & Paper to put $10 million toward agroforestry cooperation with villages in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
- One NGO worker is cautiously optimistic about the plan.
- APP has been criticized for its alleged role in last year’s fire and haze disaster, which afflicted 500,000 Indonesians with respiratory problems.

Indonesia seeks re-do on court decision absolving company for haze-causing fire
- A district court in South Sumatra recently rejected the government’s lawsuit against PT Bumi Mekar Hijau, an Asia Pulp & Paper supplier accused of causing peat fires.
- The government will appeal the ruling. Siti Nurbaya, the environment minister, plans to personally oversee the case as it moves forward.
- The case is important to the ministry, which hopes a victory against BMH will set the tone for its campaign to prosecute companies accused of burning.

Indonesia loses flagship case against company accused of burning
- A district court in South Sumatra threw out the Indonesian government’s case against PT Bumi Mekar Hijau.
- The pulp and paper company had been asked to pay a record sum in fines and reparations for causing peat fires in its concession.
- The ruling is a bad omen for those who hoped the decision would herald a raft of guilty verdicts against plantation companies seen as prime movers behind the annual pollution crisis.

What’s ahead for rainforests in 2016? 10 things to watch
- Between Indonesia’s massive forest fires, the official approval of REDD+ at climate talks in Paris, and the establishment of several major national parks, there was plenty to get excited about in the world of rainforests during 2015. What’s in store for 2016?
- Here are a few things we’ll be watching closely in the new year.
- What are other rainforest-related things to watch in 2016? Add your thoughts via the comment function below.

50+ companies being investigated or punished for Indonesia’s haze crisis
- More than 50 plantation companies are being punished or investigated by the Indonesian for fires linked to the choking haze that polluted skies across Southeast Asia this fall.
- A week ago Monday, Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya announced that 23 companies have been punished to date.
- Another 33 companies are being investigated.

El Niño vs. the Amazon: researchers worry Brazil is not prepared
- A total of 18,716 fires were reported in the Brazilian Amazon in November alone, primarily caused by farming activity.
- Researchers on the ground say local fire control efforts are not enough to combat the blazes.
- They stress the need for global leaders to address the growing problem of tropical forest fires, to both protect wildlife habitat and improve public health.

Scientists turn up haze heat on Indonesia ahead of COP21 Paris talks
- Singapore’s deputy prime minister Teo Chee Hean met with the Indonesian president in Jakarta on Wednesday.
- An indigenous group in South Sumatra called on the local government to restrict development in the Musi River basin.
- Fires continue to burn in Merauke regency in Papua, the archipelago’s easternmost province.

Riau emergency status to end as S. Sumatra pledges peat clampdown
- Indonesia’s Riau province will drop its official state of emergency at the end of the month.
- The South Sumatra provincial government pledged to stop the granting of licenses on peat.
- Central Kalimantan’s acting governor said the local government did not have adequate plans in place to mitigate the risks of fires.

Haze compensation to poor stalls as Indonesia spends on new palm oil cartel
- Rain has reduced the number of hotspots in Kalimantan and Sumatra but fires continue to rage in Papua and West Papua provinces in Indonesia’s east.
- Indonesia’s finance ministry has yet to approve a budget for cash payments to low-income families affected by the haze.
- Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to form a palm oil producers council.

Fires smoulder and floods soak Sumatra as RSPO calls for palm oil reform
- Recent rain has brought a marked improvement to air pollution levels in most parts of the archipelago but localized spikes in wildfires continue to threaten air quality.
- The International Red Cross is implementing a three-month emergency response plan through January next year.
- An RSPO official calls on palm oil companies to make public all concession maps and plans for development on those concessions.

The impacts of haze on Southeast Asia’s wildlife
- Authorities and researchers are still shockingly ignorant of the ecological impacts of the smoke from Indonesia’s annual fires.
- Some creatures are likely finding it harder to sing, which is often crucial for attracting mates, defending territory and more.
- An orangutan disease called airsacculitis might be more prevalent during the smoky season.

VP Kalla fans flames in Manila as Indonesia presses on with water bombing
- Kalla made the exact same comments blaming foreign companies during a forestry summit in Jakarta in April.
- Satellite data from Global Forest Watch show more than 20 fires burning close to the mouths of the Lumpur and Mesuji rivers.
- Indonesian government water bombing operations continue to target smoldering peat fires in South Sumatra province.

Air pollution causes millions of preventable deaths in East Asia, say scientists
- Research suggests that exposure to air pollution kills more than 3 million people prematurely, especially in South and East Asia.
- Residential stoves and furnaces burning coal and biomass produce most of the pollutants in Asia.
- If “business-as-usual” emissions continue, deaths could double by 2050.

From fires to floods: Indonesia’s disaster agency prepares for rain
- Singapore’s health ministry said it would end a government subsidy scheme for people in need of treatment from haze-related illnesses.
- Environmental pressure groups and NGOs met in Jakarta on Monday to discuss the government’s draft pledge to the UN climate summit.
- Researchers at King’s College London have been awarded a six-month grant by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Singapore calls end of haze this year as Indonesia continues to push peat plans
- The Indonesian government continues to work on enacting regulations to address the underlying causes of the annual fires.
- Vice president Jusuf Kalla said Indonesia would target 2-3 million hectares of peatland restoration by 2020.
- The government intends to form an agency for peatland restoration but has yet to decide on the specifics.

Jokowi turning over a new leaf for Indonesia on haze but details still foggy
- The president has ordered the damming of canals used to drain peat.
- Jokowi has yet to pass a presidential decree, known in Indonesia as a perppu, codifying these changes in law.
- Indonesia shipped a record 2.61 million metric tons of palm oil in October, with the month’s shipment to China rising 36%.

Indonesia bans peatlands destruction
- Indonesian president Joko Widodo has banned clearance and conversion of carbon-dense peatlands across the archipelago.
- A series of presidential and ministerial instructions bars planting of newly burned areas, instead mandating restoration.
- Notably the instructions ban clearance of peatlands even in existing concession areas.

Many Indonesia fires smoulder but danger is far from over
- Visibility declined in South Sumatra despite recent rain.
- Indonesian military personnel have found evidence of illegal logging in South Sumatra province.
- The government of the Philippines has cautioned that haze could return amid typhoon season.

Indonesian NGO takes aim at government for failure to handle haze
- Indonesian police have named 265 suspects in connection with this year’s forest fires.
- A spokesperson for Indonesia’s environment and forestry ministry told the BBC on Monday that the government had been “desperately working” to tackle the situation.
- Kontras has also criticized the longstanding practice of identifying suspects by initials.

Jokowi pushes universities to innovate to fight haze as respiratory diseases rise
- Indonesia’s ministry of higher education is attempting to create a research consortium on disaster management.
- Data from Indonesia’s disaster management agency showed the number of people diagnosed with acute respiratory infection increased to 556,945 by November 6.
- After a limited cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss peat management, Jokowi said he wanted the research department of Yogyakarta’s University of Gadjah Mada to play a central role in proposing Indonesia’s new peat strategy.

Photos confirm Indonesia being burned for palm oil
- New photos released today by Greenpeace show that palm oil developers are quickly planting burned peatlands with oil palm seedlings in Indonesian Borneo.
- The findings strongly refute a statement made by GAPKI, Indonesia’s palm oil trade association, which claimed that the country’s palm oil industry is the victim of a smear campaign.
- Greenpeace noted that there is no way to know who burned the land because the Indonesian government hasn’t released concession maps for the area in years. That makes it impossible to hold those responsible to account.

APP pumps South Africa specialists to join haze fire fight
- Working on Fire’s managing director for Asia-Pacific expressed confidence fires on APP supplier concessions could be extinguished soon.
- The South African program has hundreds of additional firefighters on standby.
- An NGO said it had seen more sightings of raptors over East Java after a slow October migration east.

Privatized gain, socialized pain; Singapore foreign minister turns up heat on haze
- Indonesia’s meteorology agency, the BMKG, forecast rain over large parts of Indonesia on Wednesday but data at 6 a.m. showed a spike in hotspots to 200.
- Indonesian media reported on Wednesday that a one-year-old girl had died in Palembang from respiratory disease.
- Singapore foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan: “This is a classic example of privatizing the gain and socializing the pain.”

Indonesia breathes easier for now as haze recedes and rain falls
- Air quality in most parts of Indonesia was improved Tuesday with further rain forecast on Wednesday.
- Detectives in Central Kalimantan continued their investigation on Tuesday into a fire at the finance department of the provincial government.
- Plantation firm PT Bumi Mekar Hijau, a supplier of Asia Pulp & Paper, was due at a hearing on Tuesday to answer charges of culpability over fires on its concessions in Ogan Komering Ilir regency.

Police investigate new hotspot at govt office in Palangkaraya as ‘important’ documents go up in smoke
- Air quality in all but one Indonesian provincial capital was below harmful levels on Monday morning.
- Police are investigating a fire at the finance department of the Central Kalimantan government that destroyed “important” documents.
- Military and volunteer first responders continue to battle fires in Java after four people died in East Java last week.

Greenpeace releases dramatic haze photos as Indonesian fire emissions surpass 1.6B tons
- Emissions from fires burning across Indonesia’s peatlands and forests have now surpassed Japan’s annual emissions and could pass Brazil’s by the end of the week,
- But emissions have slowed in recent days with the return of rainfall to parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan which have been most affected by fire.
- Nonetheless, vast areas of Indonesia are still affected by choking air pollution, which is estimated to have caused more than 500,000 cases of haze-related respiratory illnesses and killed more than a dozen people.

Dare to explore the spookier side of nature
- Eight species that were named after mythological and modern monsters.
- Due to unsustainable supply chain models and climate change, chocolate is facing an impending shortage crisis.
- The UN finds that our world’s nations have fallen short in limiting greenhouse gases and we should start preparing for a warmer world.

Jokowi pledges Indonesia peatland ‘revitalization’ to stop the burning
- President Jokowi and minister Luhut Pandjaitan have made increasingly robust pledges over the last week.
- The governor of East Java told Mongabay he had instructed officials to get on top of fires burning in areas hit by drought.
- Jambi Mayor Syarif Fasha said all health centers would be open 24 hours a day and equipped with oxygen cylinders that can be used or 20 minutes free of charge.

Indonesian wildfire disaster threatens virgin forest in Borneo
- Jokowi arrived in South Sumatra on Thursday to monitor the humanitarian and firefighting operation.
- Environment ministers from the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping met in Vietnam on Thursday.
- In the U.S. a petition has been created calling on the Obama administration to send additional firefighting assets and relief workers.

Raja Ampat fires destroy livelihoods; Sumatrans suffer from drought amid haze
- Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla called on all Muslims to pray for rain on Wednesday and to ask God for “forgiveness, guidance and mercy.”
- An aide to Kalla said companies could announce force majeur if the government declared a national disaster.
- Malaysia continues to push Indonesia to adopt tube wells in its peatlands in Kalimantan and Riau.

Jokowi cuts U.S. trip short as Tuesday rain brings hope of haze respite
- Rain fell in some haze-hit regions on Tuesday, including in Banjarmasin, Berau, Jambi, Palangkaraya, Pontianak and Samarinda.
- The navy has allocated 11 vessels, including a floating hospital, to be on standby to evacuate people from areas experiencing dangerous air quality.
- One of Indonesia’s most-prominent NGOs is advocating an expansion of the archipelago’s community-forest program as an anti-haze measure.

Under-fire Jokowi prepares biggest shift yet in Indonesian haze
- Details are unclear on Jokowi’s policy on a moratorium for Indonesia’s peatlands.
- A draft commitment to ban drainage canals on peatlands will require adequate enforcement resources.
- Indonesia yet to hand Singapore information on companies it believes responsible for fires.

Indonesia’s massive haze problem is Jokowi’s big opportunity
- Indonesia’s haze crisis presents an opportunity for Jokowi to assert leadership on climate change.
- The crisis is driving consensus for action to address the issues that unpin forest and peatland degradation in Indonesia.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author alone.

Indonesia readies shelter ships as haze last resort after #EvacuateUs hits Twitter
- #EvakuasiKami, or EvacuateUs, is the latest haze-related to topic to trend on Indonesian Twitter amid the country’s haze crisis.
- Pekanbaru has reopened shelters in the city in a desperate bid to provide some respite from the smoke.
- Local officials are specifically calling on parents to bring infants and young children to three 24-hour centers in Riau province..

Jokowi hints at company crackdown as Kalimantan residents prepare haze class action suit
- Residents in West Kalimantan have banded together to file a lawsuit against the government over pollution.
- Jokowi has said companies need to take “greater responsibility.”
- An Indonesian resort plans to offer “more underwater activities” to manage the impact of annual pollution from fires and hotspots.

Kalimantan politicians wear facemasks inside parliament as Palangkaraya suffers in silence
- Indonesia’s measure of pollution recorded air in Palangkarya at more than 10 times the level regarded as dangerous on Tuesday.
- Schools in the Central Kalimantan capital were closed again on Tuesday.
- Politicians in the provincial parliament sat in silence wearing face masks after smoke entered the building.

Papua fires send haze to Micronesia; Indonesia elections commission hints at environment debate
- The Guam Department for Homeland Security released a health warning after smog reached western Micronesia.
- Indonesia’s elections commission is facing calls to increase the prominence of the environment in election debates and prepare more information on candidates’ environmental credentials.
- Schools in Malaysia will remain closed on Tuesday while breathing air in Singapore remained in the “unhealthy” range Monday.

Indonesian healthcare in focus as haze worsens; NASA data show Papua ablaze
- Indonesian politician Fahira Idris called on health authorities to carry out additional diagnostic checks on infants.
- Data from a NASA satellite show hundreds of fires have burned in Papua over the last week.
- The minster in charge of Indonesia haze operation said the situation deteriorated Friday as air quality in Palangkaraya descended to dangerous levels.

Carbon emissions from Indonesia’s peat fires exceed emissions from entire U.S. economy
- Greenhouse gas emissions from peat fires in Borneo and Sumatra are currently exceeding emissions from the entire U.S. economy, putting Indonesia on track to be one of the world’s largest carbon polluters this year.
- According to the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) carbon emissions from Indonesia’s fires have just topped the CO2 equivalent of a billion tons.
- The findings bring into sharp focus the importance of ending business-as-usual approaches to land management in Indonesia if the world hopes to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Aircraft fight Sumatran fires as Indonesian minister looks to counter no-deforestation pledges
- Indonesia and Malaysia are finalizing details on establishing the Council of Palm Oil Producer Countries.
- The new intergovernmental association will look to counter the wave of no-deforestation commitments sweeping the industry as a result of NGO and consumer pressure, a senior minister said.
- A move to roll back zero-deforestation would be tricky for the major firms that have adopted the pledges.

Indonesia hints at possible peatland license review as haze firefight continues
- Burning peatlands in Ogan Komering Ilir continue as the frontline for the international firefighting effort in South Sumatra.
- Another Indonesian politician has called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to declare the haze pollution a national disaster.
- Indonesia’s home affairs minister has hinted the archipelago may make greater effort to protect peatlands in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Plantation companies challenged by haze-causing fires in Indonesia
- Six major plantation companies spoke with Mongabay about their efforts to battle haze-causing fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
- All acknowledged challenges in battling peat fires. All blamed illegal encroachers or fires that spread from outside their concession areas.
- All six companies – Asia Pulp & Paper, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), Golden Agri Resources (GAR), Cargill, Wilmar, and Musim Mas – contacted by Mongabay responded.

‘Blue Sky Revolution’ in Pekanbaru as haze protesters demand brighter days ahead
- Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of #RevolusiLangitBiru protesters gathered in Riau to make their voices heard against the annual haze pollution.
- Singapore’s consumer association said on Monday that it had received sustainability pledges from 38 of the 3,000 companies to whom it had written.
- The Indonesian social affairs minister said the ministry had forwarded compensation proposals from six of seven provinces to the Finance Ministry.

Haze compensation details unclear as help arrives in Sumatra
- Details on Indonesia’s plans to compensate low-income families affected by the haze remain unclear.
- Joko Widodo arrived in Riau a day after cancelling his trip to the region.
- Another Indonesian politician called for the president to announce a national disaster.

Haze cancels Jokowi haze visit as greater cooperation looms
- Joko Widodo was forced to cancel a planned trip to Jambi due to poor visibility.
- Singapore’s banks will have to publish sustainable lending policies on their websites and annual reports from 2017.
- Supermarkets in Singapore began to remove products supplied by Asia Pulp & Paper.

NASA photo shows New Guinea going up in flames
- New Guinea is experiencing widespread fire outbreaks amid a severe El Nino-driven drought across parts of the island, reveals imagery and satellite data released by NASA.
- Fire is typically used in New Guinea for land clearing by smallholders, commercial agricultural developers, and traditional hunters.
- Beyond fires, this year’s drought has been causing food shortages in parts of New Guinea, especially in poor highland areas.

Greenpeace releases dramatic drone video of Indonesia’s fires
- Greenpeace has released footage from a UAV showing burning forests and smoldering peatlands in Borneo.
- The video shows fires burning on peatlands, rainforests, and oil palm plantations surrounding Gunung Palung National Park in West Kalimantan.
- Vast areas of Gunung Palung’s buffer zone forests and swampy peatlands have been drained and cleared for rubber, palm oil, timber, and pulp production.

Singapore request for haze information tricky for Indonesia
- A formal request by Singapore to the Indonesian government for information on companies will be politically difficult for Jakarta.
- Eyes on the Forest coalition tells Jakarta to take stronger action against companies.
- Thai junta leader signals kingdom to become more involved at ASEAN level after haze blankets several Thai provinces.

Indonesia says doing all it can as neighbors ready new haze measures
- Indonesia’s disaster chief said the government is doing “the best we can” to combat fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra.
- Singapore’s banking association will soon announce new lending guidelines in a bid to introduce greater environmental criteria in lending decisions.
- Malaysia will draft new laws to enable the country to prosecute foreign companies responsible for haze.

Malaysia PM turns up heat on Indonesia as Australian firm faces fires probe
- Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak tells Indonesia to “take action” as schools across his country are shut.
- Indonesia’s probe into an Australian plantation subsidiary continues as police expects investigators to return as soon as Tuesday.
- Singapore’s air quality moderates but southeasterly winds push haze into Thailand.

‘Maybe that’s why there’s so many fires’: Was a peat swamp illegitimately stripped of protected status in Indonesia?
- An oil palm company’s concession in Central Kalimantan is said to lie on a stretch of deep peat that was removed from Indonesia’s forestry moratorium based on an erroneous government survey.
- The concession is now full of fires, fueling the haze crisis that is contaminating the air in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
- A presidential unit on development oversight was investigating the concession last year until it was disbanded by the new president in December.

Singapore takes legal action against 5 Indonesian companies over haze
- Singapore has served APP and four smaller companies with legal notices over fires burning in their concessions in Indonesia.
- Fires across Sumatra have sent haze into neighboring Singapore, polluting the air.
- Indonesia is also investigating more than 100 companies in connection with the fires.

NASA photo reveals Asia’s choking haze
- A satellite image released this week by NASA shows the extent of haze currently blanketing much of Southeast Asia.
- The photo captures plumes of smoke emerging from fires burning in the peatlands of Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo.
- The bad news is fires and haze may get worse before they get better.

As haze chokes Sumatra, farmers ask Jokowi for greater land rights
- The haze crisis is serving as an occasion for Indonesian farmers who argue that companies bear prime responsibility for the agriculture fires raging across the country to demand greater land rigthts, promised by Jokowi when he ran for president last year.
- They demonstrated in Jakarta, Riau and South Sumatra last week, unfurling 50-meter-long banners expressed their readiness to protect peatlands and forests from fire.
- Some say a misguided perception among officials that local people are lazy has stood in the way of agrarian reform.

In haze-choked Palangkaraya, air quality five times ‘hazardous’ levels
- As fires burning across Indonesia blanket the region in a noxious haze, President Joko Widodo traveled to Kalimantan to observe disaster mitigation efforts there.
- The air quality has been contaminated in Central Kalimantan more than anywhere else in the country, yet residents feel the central government has paid more attention to the fires in Sumatra because haze from there is blowing into Malaysia and Singapore.
- Activists call for the government to stop permitting oil palm companies to operate on peat, which must be drained and dried out – which makes it like a tinderbox – before it can be planted with certain crops.

Who’s responsible for Indonesia’s fires?
- As Indonesia burns, companies, smallholders and the government have all been assailed as responsible parties.
- A lack of reliable data, though, has kept researchers from drawing more specific conclusions as to the precise causes of the fires.
- One think-tank is using satellite imagery and ground checks to create a comprehensive map of Indonesia’s plantations in the absence of publicly available concession data.

Children are dying from respiratory ailments as haze blankets Sumatra
- An elementary school student in Riau, an epicenter of Indonesia’s haze crisis, died of respiratory failure last week.
- Two other children, aged 15 and 2, passed away in Jambi.
- The Health Ministry logged more than 10,000 cases of respiratory infection as of September 4.

Rogue oil palm company must pay $26m, rules Indonesia’s Supreme Court
- Kallista Alam was originally convicted of using fire to clear land by a district court. The latest decision upholds that ruling, which the company challenged.
- The government is prosecuting four more of the biggest firms in a case that is unprecedented both for the scale of the official response and the severity of the punishments that have been handed down.
- The environment and forestry minister welcomed the decision and promised to follow up.

Oil palm firm in hot water after Jokowi drops in on forest fires
- Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo paid an impromptu visit to South Sumatra, where forest fires are raging, and was appalled by the state of a particular oil palm company’s concession.
- District government officials say they will follow up with an investigation into which companies deserve to have their permits revoked, and the central government can decide whether to pull the trigger.
- One conservationist called for more community management of peatlands, arguing that it will reduce fire outbreaks.

Will REDD+ help save Indonesia’s forest, or create ‘carbon cowboys’ instead?
- Various studies show corruption continues to mar the effective management of Indonesia’s rainforests.
- Indonesia is a major frontline country in attempts to introduce REDD+.
- Critics express concern that using the market to promote forest-stored carbon will fuel another commodity bubble.

Haze chokehold spurring efforts to save Indonesia’s forests
- Haze from Indonesian fires is causing regional health problems and potentially contributing to climate change.
- Many fires are destroying valuable wildlife habitat.
- The impending El Nino weather pattern may make this year’s dry season – and subsequent fires – worse than usual.

Minister flies over Kalimantan as forest fires surge in Indonesia

A fire burns on an oil palm plantation in Borneo. Photo: Rhett A. Butler With dry season in full swing, Indonesia’s new environment and forestry minister flew in a helicopter over fire hotspots last week in West Kalimantan province, among those most affected by an annual burning event that each year blankets the region in […]
Fires rage in Indonesian park illegally trashed for palm oil

Fire burning in Tesso Nilo. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Dozens of fires are raging across Indonesia’s Tesso Nilo National Park National Park, a protected area that has lost more than 40 percent of its forest cover since 2000, reveals new analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI). WRI’s analysis of NASA satellite data shows […]
Featured video: new documentary highlights ‘Sumatra Burning’

Oil palm plantation with the rainforest of Gunung Leuser National Park in the background of Sumatra. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A new half-hour documentary investigate the impact of the palm oil industry in Indonesia, including burning forests and peatlands as well as haze spreading across Indonesian borders. Entitled Sumatra Burning, the documentary explores palm […]
Plantation companies in Sumatra failing to meet fire prevention standards

Peatlands drained for a plantation in Riau. An inter-agency audit of 17 plantation and timber concessions in Riau Province, Indonesia, found that every company is failing to meet fire prevention and control standards. In addition, several companies are working in prohibited areas, including peatlands with depths over 3 meters. “Outrageous,” said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of […]
Indonesia’s forests so damaged they burn whether or not there’s drought

Fires on deforested land trigger massive GHG emissions, haze Light haze over a drained and deforested peat forest in Riau, Sumatra in February 2014. Photo by Rhett Butler. Air pollution caused by fires set for land-clearing on Sumatra has become a regularly occurrence in Southeast Asia, spurring hand-wringing in Singapore and Malaysia over health effects […]
Singapore to fine domestic, foreign companies for causing haze

Fire hotspot data for the past seven days from the World Resources Institute’s Global Fire Watch. Singapore’s parliament has approved a controversial measure that could penalize companies — both foreign and domestic — that are responsible for causing haze overseas, reports Reuters. The bill, which needs to be signed by Singapore’s president before it becomes […]
Biomass burning accounts for 18% of CO2 emissions, kills a quarter of a million people annually

Biomass burning takes many forms: wildfires, slash-and-burn agriculture, clearing forests and other vegetation, and even industrialized burning for energy production. Yet this burning—mostly manmade but also natural—takes a massive toll both on human health and the environment, according to a new paper in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. “We calculate that 5 to 10 percent […]
NASA: Sumatra fires in the rise

The number of fires burning in Sumatra’s Riau Province doubled on Sunday, raising concerns that dry conditions could unleash an especially severe haze this dry season in Indonesia. An image released on Monday by NASA showed 154 hotspots in Riau on Sunday, July 20, more than twice the 75 hotspots detected on Saturday. NASA fire […]
Do Indonesians really want more big plantations?

New forest clearing for an oil palm plantation in Sumatra. Photo taken in May 2014 by Rhett Butler. How to best use Indonesia’s land resources? This is one of the more crucial questions facing the Presidential candidates in Indonesia’s upcoming elections. Both candidates seem to agree that Indonesia needs to increase its food security, for […]
Indonesian presidential candidates ignore environmental concerns as haze returns

New data from NASA and the World Resources Institute (WRI) show that peat fires are again burning in Sumatra, yet both leading presidential contenders are ignoring the issue of climate change, says a top official. Yesterday WRI highlighted a return of haze-causing fires in Sumatra’s Riau Province, noting a sharp jump in hotspots in the […]
Another year of fires, another year of inaction

This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the Terra satellite on Feb. 28, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. With a 70% chance of an El Niño this year, Indonesia could soon be […]
Singapore: companies must accept responsibility in addressing haze crisis

Thick smog blankets Singapore’s skyline on 06/18/2013 when the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI), Singapore’s main index for air pollution, hit record levels. © Ferina Natasya / Greenpeace. Corporations will have to step up as better stewards of the environment if Southeast Asia’s haze crisis is to be addressed, said Singaporean officials during a meeting held […]
Indonesia’s haze from forest fires kills 110,000 people per year

Forest destruction in Riau Province, Indonesia on 06/23/2013. © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace. Haze caused by burning peat forests in Indonesia kills an average of 110,000 people per year and up to 300,000 during el Niño events, while releasing hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, warns a new report from […]
Indonesian activist: strong company commitments, media push government on forest issues

Zamzami in Siak, Riau on May 23, 2014. Photos by Rhett Butler. Indonesia has become notorious for its high rate of forest loss, but there are nascent signs of progress. The central government has implemented a moratorium across some 14.5 million hectares of previously unprotected forest and peatlands, while a handful of predominantly Indonesian companies […]
NASA data: 1997 all over again for Indonesia?

Fire in Sumatra in February 2014. If fires return to Indonesia, they’d likely accelerate during the height of the dry season which coincides with July’s presidential election. Environmental issues have barely surfaced during recent political debates. The latest data from NASA shows that conditions developing in the tropical Pacific are eerily similar to those in […]
Indonesia sets aside $173M to prepare for El Niño

NASA data showing El Niño conditions forming in the Eastern Pacific. The Indonesian government has set aside 2 trillion rupiah ($173 million) to prepare for the potential impacts of El Niño on food security, reports the Jakarta Post. About half the money would go towards stockpiling rice, according to Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa. Indonesia’s […]
Logging giant suspends operations to fend off plantations from fires

Satellite image, taken on March 7, 2014 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, shows fires outlined in red burning on Sumatra. Indonesian Pulp & paper giant Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) says it has suspended operations at a concession in Riau Province in order to shift staff toward fighting […]
Indonesia’s proposed peat law too weak to protect peatlands, stop haze, says Greenpeace

Forest destruction in Riau Province, Indonesia on 06/23/2013. Greenpeace is calling on concession holders to urgently extinguish fires on their land, immediately stop the drainage and development on peat and natural forests and ensure palm oil in their supply chains is free from forest destruction. A new regulation aiming to protect peatlands is likely to […]
Sumatra on fire: burning spikes in Indonesia

Click image for interactive map Fires in Sumatra’s Riau province have spiked to levels unseen since last June, finds new analysis from the World Resources Institute (WRI) that reveals widespread burning within concessions managed by pulpwood, palm oil, and logging companies. The fires, which have progressively worsened in recent weeks, are driving haze that is […]
Does haze from burning forests affect marine life?

Two scientists are calling on researchers, NGOs, and governments to begin studying the impact of burning forests and peatlands in Indonesia on the already-threatened marine ecosystems of Southeast Asia. Every year, Indonesian farmers set forests, vegetation, and peatlands alight to clear them for agriculture, often palm oil, and pulp and paper plantations. Not only do […]
Peatlands biosphere reserve facing severe encroachment in Sumatra

New oil palm plantation in the GSK landscape. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. An important reserve that contains a block of fast-dwindling lowland swamp forest in Riau Province is facing an onslaught of encroachment for illegal oil palm plantations, worsening choking haze in the region, reports Mongabay-Indonesia. Giam Siak Kecil Biosphere Reserve (GSK), a tract […]
NASA photo reveals ongoing haze problem in Sumatra

This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the Terra satellite on Feb. 28, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. A new satellite image released by NASA highlights Indonesia’s ongoing problem with haze caused […]
Deforestation may hurt U.S. agriculture, affect monsoon cycle

Unchecked deforestation will have far-reaching impacts on temperature, rainfall, and monsoon cycles in regions well outside the tropics, affecting agriculture and water availability, warns a new report published by Greenpeace International. The report, titled An Impending Storm: Impacts of deforestation on weather patterns and agriculture, is a synthesis of dozens of recent scientific papers that […]
Palm oil giant profiting off tiger habitat destruction, alleges Greenpeace

The world’s largest palm oil trader is continuing to traffic in palm oil linked to deforestation and illegal peatlands conversion, alleges a new report from Greenpeace. The report, titled A LICENSE TO KILL: how deforestation for palm oil is driving Sumatran tigers toward extinction, documents Singapore-based Wilmar International trading with several companies linked to “illegal […]
The palm oil debate: can the world’s most productive oilseed be less damaging to the environment?

On Thursday, 17 October 2013 Mongabay.com and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) co-hosted a discussion on environmental issues related to palm oil. The discussion involved representatives from WWF, Greenpeace and the RSPO. Mongabay.com Founder Rhett A. Butler served as the moderator. The following is an approximate transcription of the discussion. The transcription was […]
June fires concentrated in peatlands, burned 1,500 sq km in Sumatra

Fires that sent a choking haze across Singapore and Malaysia in June burned some 1,500 square kilometers in Riau Province and were predominantly concentrated on peatlands, reports the World Resources Institute (WRI). Analysis of satellite data by WRI found that 72 percent of fires during the month of June occurred on peatlands in Riau. The […]
500 fires rage across Sumatra

Nearly 500 fires are burning across the Indonesian island of Sumatra, raising fears that choking air pollution could return to Singapore and Malaysia. The fires, set to clear land for agriculture, are concentrated in Riau, Jambi, and South Sumatra provinces. Like the fires that charred the region two months ago, much of the burning is […]
Fires burning again in Sumatra, triggering haze alerts in Malaysia

Deforested areas and degraded peatlands are again burning on the island of Sumatra, triggering haze alerts in nearby Malaysia, despite last week’s commitment by regional authorities to address the ongoing fire problem in Indonesia, reports the Agence France-Presse. On Monday, Malaysia’s Department of Environment reported three areas were suffering from “unhealthy” air quality. “Unhealthy” corresponds […]
Haze summit proposes sharing concession data, but keeping it hidden from the public

A high-level meeting to discuss approaches for curbing fires that drive haze over Southeast Asia ended today with a recommendation that governments establish a haze monitoring system that would share detailed land-use and concession maps to help coordinate action against companies that set illegal fires, reports the World Resources Institute (WRI). The meeting, which involved […]
Palm oil body, Greenpeace spar over Indonesia fire blame

Greenpeace and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a body that sets criteria for greener palm oil production, are caught up in a row over the origin of fires that cast a pall over Sumatra, Singapore, and Malaysia last month. The dispute started when media outlets, based on independent analysis of satellite data, identified […]
Haze fires concentrated in deforested peatlands, not forest areas, confirms satellite analysis

A new mapping tool based on NASA satellite data confirms that the majority of fires that drove the recent haze over Sumatra and Malaysia were concentrated in deforested peatlands and scrub, rather than natural forest areas. The interactive fire risk tool, developed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), maps fire scars using high-resolution […]
Palm oil lobby group misleads on origin of haze, fires

World Growth International, a group that lobbies on behalf of industrial forestry and palm oil companies, is clouding the origin of the fires that triggered ‘haze’ air pollution alerts across Singapore and Malaysia last month. In a newsletter sent out July 2, World Growth claimed “the majority of fires were located either outside forestry or […]
World’s biggest companies lay out path toward zero-deforestation commodities

With a backdrop of fires raging across oil palm and timber plantations in Sumatra, business and political leaders convened in Indonesia to discuss a path forward for producing deforestation-free commodities by 2020. The gathering in Jakarta was the first meeting of the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, a public-private push to implement the zero deforestation target […]
Indonesia NGOs call on govt to investigate 117 companies for alleged involvement in forest fires

As forest fires on the island of Sumatra continue to blanket parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore with a thick haze, a coalition of civil society groups has called on Indonesia’s Ministry of the Environment to investigate timber and palm oil companies they believe may be behind the fires. The coalition reported 117 companies to […]
Indonesia to spend $10M on cloud-seeding scheme to slow haze

The Indonesian government will spend 100 billion rupiah — $10 million — on a cloud-seeding scheme to reduce the haze plaguing Sumatra, Singapore, and Malaysia. According to a statement released after a meeting between top officials, Indonesia will use airplanes to seed clouds with salt in an effort to increase condensation and rainfall over parched […]
Cause of haze? Up to 87% of recent deforestation in fire zone due to palm oil, timber

New analysis of forest cover in Riau Province reveals the outsized role industrial plantations play in driving deforestation and associated haze. The analysis, conducted by Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of Sumatran environmental groups, finds that up to 56 percent of deforestation in Riau between 2007 and 2012 can be linked to timber plantations […]
Wind, not big increase in forest fires, driving haze in Singapore

Wind patterns makes annual problem difficult for Singapore to ignore Wind patterns, rather than a sharp increase in fires, is to blame for the record setting air pollution affecting Singapore and Malaysia, finds new analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI). WRI looked at hotspot data from NASA over the past 12 years and found […]
Palm oil companies linked to haze see share prices drop

Three firms linked to fires in Sumatra saw their share prices decline since the haze crisis worsened a week ago. Golden Agri-Resources Ltd (SGX:E5H) led the pack with an 8 percent decline since June 18. Wilmar International Limited (SGX:F34) dropped 5 percent, while First Resources Ltd (SGX:EB5) lost 4 percent. All three firms are listed […]
Greenpeace releases dramatic pictures of haze and fires in Indonesia (photos)

Greenpeace has released a series of photos from the front lines of the peat fires that are casting a pall of haze and triggering health warnings across Singapore and Malaysia. The images were taken by Getty photographer Ulet Infansasti in Sumatra, where the fires are burning. Greenpeace also released photographs taken by Ferina Natasya in […]
5 RSPO companies linked to haze

Five members of the Roundtable and Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) will be asked to submit digital maps of their plantations after media reports linked them to fires in Sumatra that are driving the haze across Singapore and Malaysia. The RSPO has given the companies — PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa, Tabung Haji Plantations, Sinar Mas, Kuala […]
Indonesia drops water bombs on fires, may resort to cloud-seeding

In an effort to control peat fires casting a pall of haze over neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesia is using airplanes to drop water across hotspots in Riau Province on the island of Sumatra, reports AFP. Officials say they may try cloud-seeding — dumping silver iodide at high altitude — if current fire-fighting efforts fall […]
Singapore air pollution hits worst level on record, government blames palm oil and timber plantations in Sumatra

Singapore’s Pollutant Standards Index hit the highest level on record Friday as “haze” driven by fires burning across plantations, peatlands, and forest areas continued to rage across Sumatra. The air pollution gauge touched a record 400 at 11 am local time on Friday, according to the National Environment Agency’s website. The level is considered “very […]
Singapore chokes on haze from deforestation fires

Singapore and Malaysian officials have asked Indonesia to take “urgent measures” to address forest fires in Sumatra that are sending choking haze northward, reports AFP. Singapore’s air pollution index is at the worst level since 2006, when Sumatra last experienced severe fires. The city-state’s Pollutant Standards Index on Monday topped 150, well above the “unhealthy” […]
Indonesian fires trigger haze alerts in Malaysia

Fires in Sumatra detected by NASA’s MODIS sensor. Courtesy of Google Earth and NASA. Fires set for land clearing in Indonesia triggered health warnings in Kuala Lumpur and other parts of Malaysia last week, reports the Associated Press. Data from NASA shows dozens of fires burns in and around plantations as well as logged-over forest […]
5,000 Muslim imams to battle haze, deforestation in Indonesia
The Indonesian government plans to recruit and dispatch 5,000 Muslim imams across the archipelago to discourage forest destruction and open burning that contributes to the choking haze now spreading across Singapore and Malaysia, reports the Jakarta Post. The plan was announced Sunday by Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan. Zulkifli was speaking at a board meeting of […]
Plantation fires in Indonesia trigger haze-related health warnings in Malaysia

Smoke from plantation fires in Indonesian Borneo and Sumatra are casting a pall over cities in Malaysia, triggering health warnings from officials, reports The Straits Times. A bulletin posted on the web site for Malaysia’s Ministry of Environment shows that more than 80 percent of Malaysia has “moderate” air quality, falling between 50-100 on the […]
Fires burn in Sumatra, drive air pollution in Malaysia
More than 100 Indonesian firefighters are battling peatland fires set by oil palm plantation developers in Riau province on the island of Sumatra, reports the AFP. “The smoke comes from fires in peatland areas in Riau province,” forestry ministry official Deni Haryanto told AFP. “Our satellite monitoring shows that the fires in Rokan Hilir of […]
Will Indonesia’s big REDD rainforest deal work?

A shorter version of this article appears on Yale e360 as Indonesia’s Corruption Legacy Clouds a Forest Protection Plan. The version that appears below was last revised on October 31, 2010. Flying in a plane over the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea, rainforest stretches like a sea of green, broken only by […]
Oil palm plantation fires driving air pollution in Singapore

Oil palm plantation fires in Sumatra are contributing to air pollution in Singapore, according to Indonesia’s forestry minister. Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkilfi Hasan told the Wall Street Journal that fires in concession areas, rather than in forests, is causing the haze that is exacerbating tensions between Indonesia and its neighbors, Singapore and Malaysia. Air quality […]
Forest fires set by Borneo dam developer contributes to haze in Malaysia, Singapore

The developer of a massive hydroelectric project in Borneo plans to set fire to thousands hectares of logged over rainforest in the dam area, contributing to polluting haze already blanketing the region and raising the risk of forest fires in adjacent areas, reports a local environmental group. The Sarawak Conservation Action Network (SCANE) has learned […]
Air quality worsens in Malaysia due to forest fires
Air quality in Malaysian Borneo is worsening as large numbers of fires rage near the Sarawak-Brunei border, reports the Star newspaper. The Air Pollutant Index (API) reached as high as 197 in parts of Sarawak on Sunday, according to Malaysia’s Environment Department. Fires are set in Sarawak to clear brush and forest in and around […]
Burning by Asia Pulp & Paper contributes to haze in Indonesia, Malaysia

One quarter of fire hotspots recorded in the Indonesia province of Riau on the island of Sumatra in 2009 have occurred in concessions affiliated with Sinar Mas Group’s Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), according to new analysis by Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of environmental groups. The fires are contributing to the “haze” that […]

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