Involvement of foreign companies in forest and land burning in Indonesia

Channel news asia

Merdeka< reports: A local environmental advocacy NGO has been monitoring the involvement of foreign companies in forest and land burning in Indonesia, but admits it has been difficult to pinpoint where these companies are from.

JAKARTA: A local environmental advocacy NGO, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), has been monitoring the involvement of foreign companies in forest and land burning in Indonesia.

However, the group admitted on Tuesday (Oct 13) that it has been difficult to pinpoint where these companies are from.

"It is difficult to categorize where the companies are from. Some of them are from Malaysia and Singapore, or are doing financial transaction with companies in Malaysia and Singapore," forest conservation and campaign manager of Walhi, Zenzi Suhadi, told merdeka.com on Tuesday.

The complexity of the network of companies involved in the forest burning makes it hard to point the finger at specific countries.

"In some cases, there are Malaysian and Singapore companies that have subsidiaries in Indonesia, while there are also Indonesian companies which are listed on Singapore's stock exchange. There are also Indonesian companies, which are financed by companies from Malaysia and Singapore," Zenzi explained.

According to Walhi, companies from Malaysia dominate the palm oil plantation industry in Indonesia. Strong lobby between central and local government with Malaysian companies is hard to break, Zenzi added.

Most of palm oil companies chose to burn the forest as a short-cut for clearing the land to start planting.

In 2013, the Ministry of Environment found evidences that fires are purposely ignited. "It was obvious from the fire spread whether it was purposely or accidentally ignited," he said on June 2013.