location: South Sumatra

location: South Sumatra

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Sumatra citizen lawsuit seeks accountability for haze-causing fires
- Three companies that manage pulpwood plantations in Indonesia are facing a citizen lawsuit over repeated fires on their concessions that have been blamed for illnesses and other disruptions.
- The companies are located in South Sumatra province and are all suppliers to Asia Pulp & Paper, the largest pulp and paper producer in Indonesia.
- In the lawsuit, residents of areas affected by haze from the fires say they want the companies to know that “what they are doing is wrong because it damages our families and the environment.”
- Citizen lawsuits are increasingly being used by communities across Indonesia to hold companies accountable for environmental damage, amid rising dissatisfaction with the inability of law enforcement to crack down on serial violators.

More alarms over Indonesia rhino poaching after latest trafficking bust
- A recent rhino horn trafficking bust in southern Sumatra may be linked to a poaching network in Java responsible for killing 26 Javan rhinos since 2019.
- The arrest of a 60-year-old suspect in the bust highlights the broader crackdown on the illegal wildlife trade, including the use of cyber patrols to monitor online trafficking activities.
- Investigations have uncovered significant discrepancies between official rhino population figures and actual numbers, suggesting that many rhinos have disappeared due to poaching, despite government claims of population growth.
- Conservation experts stress the exclusivity of the rhino horn trade network and the need for specialized efforts to dismantle it.

Sumatran province brings hammer down on illegal oil wells after fatal blasts
- Indonesia’s South Sumatra province was the site of some of the archipelago’s largest oil discoveries by U.S. and Dutch companies during the early 20th century.
- After many wells were abandoned in the 1990s, thousands of farmers who previously tapped rubber moved into freelance oil extraction.
- Fatal explosions at illegal drilling sites this year have prompted the province to form a task force to oversee a crackdown on the sector, which in some locations accounts for more than a third of local employment.

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.

Cycling oil palm biomass waste back into the soil can boost soil health, study says
- Oil palm growers in Indonesia can boost soil health and reduce their fertilizer use by adding waste biomass back to the soil, a new study says.
- Biomass such as pruned palm fronds and empty fruit bunches that have already been milled for their oil are rich in silicon, an important element in healthy oil palm plantations.
- Large palm oil companies already practice some form of this biomass cycling, but the high cost and effort means smallholder farmers are missing out on the benefits.
- There are 15 million hectares of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, with harvests taking place twice a week, which translates into an immense amount of biomass removal — and thus loss of silicon.

Trapping holds back speed of bird recovery in a Sumatran forest, study shows
- A decade of protection and natural regeneration of tropical forests has helped bird populations increase in the southern lowlands of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, a new study says.
- However, it adds that continued wild trapping is preventing the reforestation effort from achieving its greatest results.
- The Harapan Forest, which straddles the provinces of Jambi and South Sumatra, in 2007 became the site of Indonesia’s first ecosystem restoration concession to recover biodiversity in the region after commercial selective logging ceased in 2005.
- Since 2004, Indonesia has awarded 16 licenses for ecosystem restoration concessions, including for the Harapan Forest, covering an area of 623,075 hectares (1.54 million acres) in Sumatra and Borneo, according to 2018 government data.

Loss of wetlands threatens South Sumatra’s rich fish-preserving tradition
- Rural communities in South Sumatra, an Indonesian province that’s two-fifths wetlands, have long relied on catching freshwater fish as a source of livelihood.
- The region is renowned for its variety of preserved fish products, which are sold throughout Indonesia.
- However, the wetlands are disappearing at a rapid rate, filled in to make way for oil palm plantations and highways, and threatening the region’s long-running fish-preserving tradition.
- Today, most of the freshwater fish processed here comes from fish farms, and include exotic species not native to the region, which some say doesn’t taste as good as the traditional species.

Sumatran tiger arrives at Tacoma captive-breeding program
- A male Sumatran tiger has arrived at a captive-breeding program in Tacoma, Washington state, where it’s hoped more of the critically endangered cats will be born.
- Fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers survive in the wilds of Sumatra today, where forest loss is pushing many of the island’s species, including tigers, into smaller pockets of habitat.
- This article was produced in collaboration with McClatchy News.

Labor groups seek to build on Indonesian palm oil court win in new cases
- Last year, Indonesia’s Supreme Court ordered one of the world’s largest palm oil companies to make severance payments worth tens of thousands of dollars, handing palm oil workers an important victory in a labor dispute.
- Asserting the decision as a new precedent, activists and union groups are mounting a case for two new lawsuits against the company, London Sumatra, on behalf of 200 workers over unfair dismissals.
- Indonesia is the world’s top palm oil producer but allegations of labor abuses have dogged the industry.

Java fishers struggle with seine net ban amid rising costs, falling profits
- Fishers on the north coast of Java are struggling to adapt to a ban on the seine net, with many boats confined to port after the government ceased issuing new permits to seine net fishers.
- Java fishers report declining catch volumes from the alternative net.
- Some boat captains fear bankruptcy as cash flow pressures mount.

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.

Study casts doubt on sustainability of regulated blood python snakeskin trade
- There’s no evidence to show that the trade in blood pythons from Indonesia, coveted for their skins for making luxury fashion items, is sustainable, a new study shows.
- In fact, the evidence indicates that much of the trade, which involves slaughtering and skinning the snakes by the tens of thousands every year, may be illegal.
- The species isn’t considered threatened or protected in Indonesia, the main producer of blood python skins, and exports are governed by CITES, the convention on the international wildlife trade.
- The study’s author calls on the Indonesian government to enforce stricter monitoring and scrutiny of annual harvests, traders to abide by the regulations, and global buyers to shift away from exotic leather and use alternatives.

‘The promise was a lie’: How Indonesian villagers lost their cut of the palm oil boom
- An investigation by Mongabay, BBC News and The Gecko Project estimates that Indonesian villagers are losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year because palm oil producers are failing to comply with regulations requiring them to share their plantations with communities.
- The “plasma” scheme was intended to lift communities out of poverty. But it has become a major source of unrest across the country, as government interventions fail to compel companies to deliver on their commitments and legal obligations.
- Palm oil from companies accused of withholding profits from communities is flowing into the supply chains of major consumer goods firms like Kellogg’s and Johnson & Johnson. Some have pledged to investigate.

‘Land mafia’ makes its mark in a Sumatran village’s fight against oil palm firm
- A government agency in Sumatra issued land titles to villagers in 2020, only to rescind them this year on the grounds that a palm oil company already holds the concession for that land.
- The flip-flop has revealed a litany of irregularities in the land-titling process and strengthened suspicions of a “land mafia” at work securing community-occupied lands for big businesses.
- The National Land Agency says more than 100 of its officials are suspected of being part of this mafia, but has done little to address the problem, and continues to violate a Supreme Court ruling that could bring greater transparency to land ownership across Indonesia.
- Activists say the land mafia have been emboldened by the government’s pro-business policies, including directives to make it easier for investors to secure land for projects.

For forest communities in Sumatra, loss of nature means loss of culture
- Environmental damage in the Ogan Komering Ilir region of South Sumatra is driving social shifts and threatening Indigenous cultural traditions.
- During the Panggung Kecil Festival in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra, musicians Fikri M.S. and Silo Siswanto showcased new work exploring the cultural impact of environmental destruction.
- The musical tradition of tembangan in Silo’s home region risks being lost, but similar genres continue to flourish among Indigenous communities living in intact rainforests.

Build around the forest, not through it, study says of Sumatra trucking road
- Researchers have identified alternative routes for a planned mining road that will cut through the Harapan forest, the largest surviving tract of lowland tropical rainforest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
- The alternative routes will avoid thousands of hectares of forest loss as they skirt the main forest block while traversing nearby lands that are largely deforested.
- They are also potentially cheaper than the routes planned by coal miner PT Marga Bara Jaya (MBJ) because they utilize existing road networks and improve them.
- Local environmental activists have identified similar alternative routes, but the fact that the company is proposing a more destructive path points to a lack of will to minimize deforestation, poor planning, or a deliberate attempt to cut through the middle of the forest, researchers say.

Worked to death: How a Chinese tuna juggernaut crushed its Indonesian workers
- One of China’s biggest tuna companies, Dalian Ocean Fishing, made headlines last year when four Indonesian deckhands fell sick and died from unknown illnesses after allegedly being subject to horrible conditions on one of its boats.
- Now, an investigation by Mongabay, Tansa and the Environmental Reporting Collective shows for the first time that the abuses suffered by workers on that vessel — most commonly, being given substandard food, possibly dangerous drinking water and being made to work excessively — were not limited to one boat, but widespread and systematic across the company’s fleet.
- Moreover, migrant fishers were subject to beatings and threats to withhold pay if they did not follow orders. Many have not received their full salaries or been paid at all.
- China has the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet, and Indonesia is widely believed to be the industry’s biggest supplier of labor. In 2019 and 2020, at least 30 fishers from Indonesia died on Chinese long-haul fishing boats, often from unknown illnesses.

Local leaders in Indonesia make forest and peatland protection pledge
- Nine districts across three islands in Indonesia have pledged to protect 50% of their forests, peatlands and other “important ecosystems” by 2030.
- The pledge encompasses a total of 5.8 million hectares (14.3 million acres) of forest and 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) of peat — a total area the size of South Carolina.
- The declaration mirrors the 2018 Manokwari Declaration by the governors of Papua and West Papua provinces, who pledged to protect 70% of the forestland in those two provinces.

Planned coal-trucking road threatens a forest haven for Sumatran frogs
- The Harapan forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra is teeming with frog species, one of which was just described last year.
- These amphibians are threatened by a coal-trucking road that the government has approved to be built right through the forest.
- Environmental activists have pushed back against the project, calling on the government to either suspend the project or approve alternative routes that would bypass the forest altogether or cut through a less pristine portion of it.
- The local government has promised to study the project’s impact, but activists point out the final decision lies with the central government, which gave the approval and has still not addressed their concerns.

Paper giant APP failing its own sustainability goals, report alleges
- A new report urges bank and buyers to stop doing business with Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the world’s biggest paper producers, for its alleged failure to uphold its own sustainability commitments.
- The report, by the Environmental Paper Network (EPN), a coalition of NGOs, lists a litany of violations — from destruction of tropical peat ecosystems to the prevalence of burning to persistent community conflicts — associated with APP’s operations in Indonesia.
- The company has denied the allegations, saying it continues to make strides in restoring peat areas of its concessions and resolving land disputes with local and Indigenous communities.
- However, the EPN points to a lack of transparency and verifiable progress in both APP’s sustainability commitments and resolution of conflicts.

For Sumatran elephant conservation, involvement of local people is key (commentary)
- For critically endangered Sumatran elephants, a long-term conservation strategy must include community involvement in mitigating human-elephant conflict, in addition to securing viable habitats.
- Any successful conflict mitigation should raise the awareness of–and gain acceptance from–the local community, requiring adequate support from governments and conservation NGOs.
- Only when viable habitats and community involvement are both ensured will the well-being of the local people, as well as the conservation of Sumatran elephants, be secured.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Report finds litany of labor abuses on RSPO-certified oil palm plantations
- Widespread labor abuses have been documented in five oil palm plantations in Indonesia, ranging from exposure to hazardous chemicals, a reliance on temporary workers, below minimum-wage payments, to the suppression of independent unions.
- These plantations are in theory supposed to be role models for the industry, with RSPO sustainability certification and buyers that include the likes of food giant Nestlé.
- Labor rights activists say these companies and their agribusiness parent groups and buyers must follow up on the findings and take meaningful action to clean up the industry.

11 workers killed in landslide at illegal coal mining site in Indonesia
- Eleven workers were killed by a landslide at an illegal coal mining site in Muara Enim district in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province.
- South Sumatra has Indonesia’s largest known coal resources, which have drawn both legal and illegal miners.
- Illegal mining continues to be a problem in the province. The local government shut down eight such sites in 2019, some of which were in the same district as the site of the accident.
- The area’s large coal reserves prompted the Indonesian government, in cooperation with China, to build a power plant near the site of the accident.

Sumatran bridge project in elephant habitat may exacerbate degradation
- Officials in Sumatra have agreed to build a bridge linking the main island to the archipelago of Bangka-Belitung, part of wider efforts to boost economic development in the region.
- The starting point for the planned bridge will be the Air Sugihan ecosystem, which is home to at least 148 wild and critically endangered Sumatran elephants.
- Conservationists say there needs to be a science-based approach to infrastructure development in the region to minimize threats to the elephant population.
- The Air Sugihan ecosystem was as recently as the 1970s home to another iconic species, the Sumatran tiger, before a government-sponsored migration program led to a boom in the human population and the clearing of large swaths of land for agriculture.

Paper giant APP’s Sumatran road project cuts through elephant habitat
- A subsidiary of paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper Sinar Mas plans to upgrade a road that cuts through peat and mangrove forests that constitute a wild elephant habitat in Indonesia’s southern Sumatra.
- The project aims to improve connectivity between the company’s pulp mill and port, as part of efforts to turn it into the largest pulp and paper producer in Asia.
- The company has promised that the project will not require the further clearing of peat or mangrove forests and will have minimal impact on the elephant population of about 150.
- Conservationists say they’re worried the project could usher in further development of infrastructure and settlements, which could eventually wipe out the wild elephant population in this region.

Indonesia approves coal road project through forest that hosts tigers, elephants
- The Indonesian government has granted permission to a coal company to build a road that would cut through the highly biodiverse Harapan forest in Sumatra.
- The road is for transporting coal from the company’s mine to power plants in South Sumatra province.
- Experts have called on the company to have the road skirt the forest and use an existing road network, but the company has not issued any revision of its design.
- Conservationists and indigenous communities have warned that the road could devastate the ecosystem, create more habitat fragmentation and facilitate further encroachment for logging, hunting and agriculture.

Land conflicts escalate with spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia
- Companies embroiled in land disputes with rural communities in Indonesia appear to be using the lull in oversight during the COVID-19 outbreak to strengthen their claims, activists say.
- Since the first confirmed cases of the disease were reported in the country on March 2, two local land defenders have been killed and four arrested in connection with land disputes in Sumatra and Borneo.
- The national human rights commission has called on companies, including palm oil and mining firms, to cease their activities during this public health emergency.

Habitat loss drives deadly conflict in Indonesia’s tiger country
- In separate incidents in November and December, tigers killed five people in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province.
- The recent increase in human-tiger conflict has surprised many people in the area, who say they have long had a harmonious relationship with the animals.
- Conservationists say a key driver of human-tiger conflicts is habitat degradation due development projects like roads, housing, plantations and mining.

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.

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.

A tiger refuge in Sumatra gets a reprieve from road building
- Sumatra’s Kerinci Seblat National Park is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (TRHS), which has been inscribed on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger since 2011.
- UNESCO has noted particular concern about a spate of road projects planned for Kerinci Seblat and other protected areas within the TRHS.
- According to park officials, Indonesia’s forestry ministry has refused permits for all new roads within the park; the sole project to receive permission is the upgrade of an existing road.
- The park still faces immense pressure from encroachment for agriculture, logging, mining and poaching.

Sumatran elephant sanctuary under threat from bridge, port projects
- Both the planned bridge and private port in southern Sumatra would be built in an area that includes a key wildlife sanctuary that’s home to 152 critically endangered Sumatran elephants.
- The bridge would link to an island being developed for tourism, while the port would serve a pulpwood mill operated by Asia Pulp & Paper.
- Environmentalists have called for minimal disruption to the habitat if the projects go ahead, including elevated roads and strict zoning to ensure the elephants can co-exist alongside the anticipated influx of people.
- An attempt was made in 1982 to relocate the elephants from the area to make way for a migrant colony, but the elephants moved back and the area was subsequently designated as a sanctuary.

A forest beset by oil palms, logging, now contends with a coal-trucking road
- The Harapan forest in southern Sumatra, Indonesia, faces threats from illegal logging, encroachment by oil palm growers, poaching of its wildlife, and the loss of funding for conservation initiatives.
- An indigenous community, conservation managers and activists have highlighted another danger that risks fragmenting the biodiverse lowland rainforest: a coal-trucking road that would slice through the area.
- Local authorities reviewing the project proposal have called on the company behind it to consider a road that skirts the forest instead, but the company has not yet published a revised plan.
- The forest’s Batin Sembilan indigenous group says the creation of a road will increase access into the forest, exacerbating long-simmering tensions with migrant communities they accuse of trying to grab the land.

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.

Indonesia’s Teater Potlot takes on the plight of the Sumatran tiger
- A seventh-century Srivijaya king, Srijayanasa, believed progress should bring merit to man and creature alike.
- “Puyang,” a play by a South Sumatra theater group, explores the undoing of this pact through the eyes of a mythical tiger.
- Today, there are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers believed to be living in the wild, as plantation and mining interests raze their forest homes.

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.

The destruction of nature in S. Sumatra has given rise to a criminal generation (commentary)
- Reports of criminal activity have increasingly trickled out of Indonesia’s South Sumatra province.
- Could these incidents of violence, lawbreaking and general lack of respect for order be related to diminishing natural resources and destruction of the landscape? This article explores this idea.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author alone.

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.

Poachers blamed as body of Sumatran elephant, missing tusks, found in protected forest
- Farmers in southern Sumatra found the body of a young male elephant inside a protected forest and missing its tusks.
- No external injuries were found that could point to a cause of death, leading wildlife activists to suspect it was killed by poisoning, a common tactic used by poachers.
- The discovery comes less than a month after a pregnant elephant was found poisoned to death in northern Sumatra — although in that case the tuskless female appeared more likely to have been killed for encroaching on farms than by poachers.

Where, oh where, are the rhinos of Bukit Barisan Selatan?
- Some claim a small but viable population of about a dozen rhinos persists deep within the forests of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park on Sumatra’s southwestern coast.
- Camera traps haven’t captured a single rhino there since 2014, spurring doubts there are any rhinos remaining at all.
- The disputed numbers lead to questions about what should happen to any rhinos that might remain in the park — and to the rangers assigned to protect them.

Worst-case scenario: There could be only 30 wild Sumatran rhinos left
- In 1986, scientists estimated there could be as many as 800 Sumatran rhinos left. That fell to 400 in 1996, then 275 in 2008.
- Today the official estimate is 100 rhinos, but almost all experts believe that figure is overly optimistic.
- Adding up the minimum estimate for each of the four known wild populations yields a total of just 30 wild Sumatran rhinos left on earth, plus another nine in captivity.

Lawsuits test local governments’ ability to clean up Indonesia’s coal mining sector
- A government commission in 2014 found that thousands of mining permits did not meet Indonesia’s legal standards.
- Some local governments have moved to shut down violating companies. In one province, South Sumatra, companies are fighting back in court.
- So far, 10 companies have sued to get their permits reinstated. Five have succeeded.

Indonesian coal firms shut down for violations fight back in court, with mixed results
- Indonesian authorities have revoked or not renewed more than 2,100 mining licenses that fail to meet legal standards.
- In South Sumatra province, where 77 licenses were canceled, 10 coal mining firms have sued local officials for taking away their permits.
- So far, one lawsuit has succeeded, while four other companies have failed to get their licenses reinstated.
- The legal challenges in South Sumatra underscore the difficulties officials face as they try to clean up Indonesia’s mining sector.

Indonesian coal mining firm gets its license reinstated despite a history of violations
- The governor of Indonesia’s South Sumatra province revoked PT Batubara Lahat’s coal mining license after the company was found to owe the government more than $2 million.
- On June 8, an administrative court overturned the governor’s decision.
- Nationwide, more than 2,100 mining licenses have been revoked or not been renewed following investigations into their legality, resulting in multiple lawsuits.
- Activists fear this verdict could have wider repercussions.

‘Give us back our land’: paper giants struggle to resolve conflicts with communities in Sumatra
- Plantation firms like Asia Pulp & Paper and Toba Pulp Lestari have a long history of land grabbing, often dating back to the New Order military dictatorship. More recently, they have pledged to eliminate the practice from their supply chains.
- Many of the conflicts remain unaddressed. The companies say they are working hard to resolve them.
- A new online platform launched by the Rainforest Action Network shows that communities are still suffering the impacts of having their traditional forests and lands seized to make way for plantations.

A Sumatran king’s 1,400-year-old vision for sustainable landscape planning
- Indonesia’s South Sumatra is an epicenter of the annual peat fires that ravage the archipelago country.
- The province has become a staging ground for projects like KELOLA Sendang, which is intended to promote sustainable landscape management in an important tiger habitat.
- More than a millennium ago, the ruler of the Srivijaya kingdom put forth his own vision for sustainable prosperity — one of which today’s policymakers could take heed.

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.

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.

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.

Smoke from Indonesia’s fires begins to drift into Malaysia
- The number of Indonesian fires and hotspots in the 2016 dry season has so far been lower than last year.
- The director of law enforcement at Indonesia’s environment ministry said the ministry accepted the unpopular decision by Riau Police to close the pending cases on the 15 companies under investigation.
- Kalyana Sundram from the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) said companies liable for fires in Malaysia would have licenses immediately revoked by the central government.

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.

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.

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 hustles to preempt new round of haze-causing fires
- The new peatlands restoration agency is looking at an early-warning system that can assess peatlands’ vulnerability to combustion.
- Authorities in Aceh are still struggling to extinguish fires that started last week due to the prolonged dry weather.
- In Riau, activists handed the governor a lawsuit over last year’s fires.

Indonesia’s antigraft agency strives to rein in the mining sector
- Indonesia’s anticorruption agency has become involved in a number of initiatives to improve governance of natural resources in the archipelago.
- One such effort, focused on the mining sector, involves 12 provinces and has resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of permits.
- This initiative, known as Korsup Minerba, recently produced an assessment of the provinces’ progress in reining in the miners under their watch.

Team of 6: the leadership of Indonesia’s peatlands restoration agency is now in place
- The new appointees are Hartono Prawiratmadja, Haris Gunawan, Alue Dohong, Myrna Safitri and Budi Wardhana.
- They will serve under Nazir Foead, the conservationist named head of the agency in January.
- Their goal: rewett 2 million hectares of dried peatlands, about the same area that burned in last year’s devastating fires.

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.

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