Thick haze spread in Sumatra, schools shut
Thousands of schools were shut in Sumatra this week due to worsening haze from forest and land burnings as fire hotspots were detected in concession and non-concession areas, media reports said.
Thousands of schools were shut in Sumatra this week due to worsening haze from forest and land burnings as fire hotspots were detected in concession and non-concession areas, media reports said.
Riau Province Government set emergency status of forest and land fires that effective from 19 February to 31 October 2019 following the intense burnings and haze in Bengkalis district, Dumai city, and Meranti islands district.
Eyes on the Forest coalition conducted last week series of ground checking on burned areas and found a concession of industrial timber supplier in Rokan Hilir district and peat restoration priority areas in Bengkalis razed by fires. The restoration areas were also situated on land of indicative map on new permit issuance suspension (dubbed as PIPPIB).
Fire hotspot number in Indonesia drastically increase this month as long drought and hot temperature could drive the trend. Approximately 529 hotspots were detected in West Kalimantan province during the 7-23 July 2018 period, as analyzed by Eyes on the Forest - West Kalimantan network based on monitoring from the Terra-Aqua Modis satellite with confidence 30% up.
A legislator from Riau questioned the government who used helicopter facilities from a forestry and plantation company to monitor forest and land fires in the province.
Environmentalist group urged the Indonesian Police Chief to review performance of Riau Police Chief for closing 11 of 18 cases of companies investigated for alleged intentional burnings last year
Sinar Mas Group (SMG) and Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) last week denied publicly that their companies are involved in ongoing forest and land fires. Eyes on the Forest coalition said that media stunt by the giant company is ridiculous and hard to trust.
Eyes on the Forest today published a new animation it produced using MODIS True Color Terra images since 17 August 2015. The animation shows smokes coming out of Asia Pulp & Paper's own PT. Rimba Hutani Mas concession in South Sumatra.
Eyes on the Forest found two Landsat images showing fires in and around concessions of four Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) suppliers in peat areas in Jambi and South Sumatra provinces and heavy smokes from them.
Kalimantan, Carbon stock, Biodiversity loss, Pulp & paper, What companies can do, Adindo Hutani Lestari, AHL, APRIL, burning, commitment, corporate, deforestasi, deforestation, EoF, fire burning, forest fire, forest fires, gambut, Jikalahari, kalimantan, moratorium, palm oil, peat fire, peatland, pulp & paper, SFMP
APRIL published an audit report by its consultant Hatfield which confirmed an Eyes on the Forest report that APRIL’s wood supplier, PT. Adindo Hutani Lestari (AHL) in North Kalimantan, had breached APRIL’s forest and peatland clearance moratorium starting 15 May 2015.
Riau province is raged by forest and land fires where EoF analyzed based on NASA Firms Eosdis Data that total 426 fires hostspots detected during June 2015.
Commitment on Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 that recently launched by Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) on 3 June 2015 is not a blank cheque nor a public relation stunt as usual to business world and public in whole.
The second week of month showed the most fire hotspots found in Riau province since fires and haze returned from January. There are total 1605 hotspots detected accumulatively in the province based on NASA Modis Fire monitoring in period of 13-19 February.
After being free from haze and fires since September 2013, Riau’s annual problem, haze and wildfires, returns to Riau since the end of January 2014. The increasing hotspots which are found in plantations’ concessions as well as outside concessions which have caused the worsening air quality in the province, as schools closed and thousands people infected by respiratory infections.
Pekanbaru (EoF News)-- Residents of Lubuk Mandarsah, Tebo District of Jambi province, ran amok and burned 11 excavators and one car belong to PT Wira Karya Sakti (WKS), a subsidiary of Sinar Mas Group or Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), as the pulp company first cleared three-year-aged oil palm plantation of a villager.
Indonesian authorities have vowed to take action against anyone setting fires and taken a series of other measures.
Eyes on the Forest coalition in July – November 2015 conducted field investigation to check fire hotspots as detected by NASA Modis Firms satellite...
APP has launched its best management practice for peatland (Peatland Best Practice Management Program) in Jakarta on 13 August 2015. The initiative...