Indonesian Forest Fires Crisis: Palm oil

and pulp companies with largest

burned land areas are going
unpunished
by Greenpeace Southeast Asia
September 24, 2019 | 0 Comments
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“We have taken law enforcement steps. Both individuals and corporations,
we have taken strict measures against everyone.”
– President Joko Widodo, 18 September 2019

“We must enforce the law without fear or favour. Even the richest person in
Indonesia, if they do wrong, they’re wrong.”
– Luhut Panjaitan, then Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and
Security Affairs, 21 October 2015

A total of 3,403,000 hectares (ha) of land burned between the years 2015 and
2018 in Indonesia, according to analysis of official government burn scar
data. In 2015 alone more than 2,600,000 ha of land burned. The fires that
ravaged Indonesia in 2015 are considered one of the greatest environmental
disasters of the 21st century so far. The World Bank estimates that the 2015
fires crisis cost Indonesia US$16 billion in losses to forestry, agriculture,
tourism and other industries. The haze caused respiratory and other illnesses in
hundreds of thousands of people across the region and, according to one study,
likely led to over 100,000 premature deaths.

The Indonesian government responded with a series of commitments to prevent

another such crisis and promises to hold to account those responsible, including
companies that had fires on their land. Indonesia has strict corporate liability in
relation to forest fires, meaning that forestry, plantation or mining companies
are legally responsible for any fires on their land, regardless of the ignition
source.

Greenpeace Indonesia mapping analysis using official government data,

combined with data on government action taken against companies which had
fires on their land, confirms that almost none of the palm oil and pulp
companies whose concessions had the largest areas of burned land have been
punished through serious government sanctions.