Kebakaran lahan PT Arara Abadi di Desa Merbau, Kabupaten Pelalawan yang terjadi pekan lalu menyita kemarahan pembela lingkungan hidup. PT Arara Abadi, pemasok bahan baku untuk Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), diduga sengaja melakukan pembakaran lahan seluas 83 hektar untuk ditanami kembali dengan akasia.
Kebakaran hutan dan lahan di Taman Nasional Tesso Nilo, Kabupaten Pelalawan, belum sepenuhnya berhasil dipadamkan. Tim gabungan Tesso Nilo yang terdiri dari Tim Elephant Flying Squad, Balai TNTN, Polri, dan Masyarakat Peduli Api (MPA binaan Balai Taman Nasional Tesso Nilo) terus melakukan upaya pemadaman di lapangan.
Fires hotspots still haunt Riau province as in recent week there were 114 fire hotspots that analyzed by Eyes on the Forest based on NASA Firms EOSDIS Data, and Bengkalis district still the area mostly suffered by fires with 62 hotspots.
Eyes on the Forest analyzed that 290 fires hotspots accumulatively detected in period of 11 January - 11 February 2015 where Bengkalis district has got 160 of it, the most among the district in Riau Province.