3 firms in NEA probe top NGOs' fire alert list

APP suppliers under probe over 2015 haze among 8 firms with highest number of alerts

A man, undeterred by the air quality, riding on a paddle board at East Coast Park as the haze partly obscured ships in the distance at around 6pm on Sept 30, 2015.
A man, undeterred by the air quality, riding on a paddle board at East Coast Park as the haze partly obscured ships in the distance at around 6pm on Sept 30, 2015. ST FILE PHOTO
The 1pm PSI reading on Sept 24, 2015, was 179-219. NEA opened a probe into APP suppliers PT Bumi Mekar Hijau, PT Rimba Hutani Mas and PT Bumi Andalas Permai, and PT Sebangun Bumi Andalas Woods Industries in 2015.
The 1pm PSI reading on Sept 24, 2015, was 179-219. NEA opened a probe into APP suppliers PT Bumi Mekar Hijau, PT Rimba Hutani Mas and PT Bumi Andalas Permai, and PT Sebangun Bumi Andalas Woods Industries in 2015. ST FILE PHOTO

Three companies being investigated by the National Environment Agency (NEA) over the 2015 haze crisis had large numbers of fire alerts on their pulpwood concessions this year, an analysis of fire alerts published yesterday shows.

The three companies supply wood to Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and are among eight pulpwood concessions with the highest number of fire alerts in Indonesia based on data from Nasa's VIIRS, a satellite-based imagery tool that detects hot spots.

Another company, PT Sumatera Riang Lestari, a supplier to Singapore-based Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (April), is also on the list with the second-highest number of alerts. Its concession area is in Riau province.

Koalisi Anti Mafia Hutan, a coalition of non-governmental groups focused on forest and land management in Indonesia, used the satellite data to check the number of fire alerts between Jan 1 and Oct 31 this year on industrial pulpwood concessions. These concessions supply wood to make paper products and rayon to make clothes. A large number of fire alerts were detected in plantations on peatlands.

Apart from the four firms listed above, four others on the list included three other APP suppliers and another affiliated with Marubeni Corp of Japan.

Indonesia has millions of hectares of peatlands, which, if left untouched, are normally forested swamps. The water locks in the dense, carbon-rich peat base. But years of development have cleared and drained large areas of peatland.

Dried-out peat is highly flammable and when burned, produces a thick, toxic smoke that can cause severe respiratory illness. It also produces large amounts of carbon dioxide.

The coalition found that PT Bumi Mekar Hijau, an APP supplier with a large concession area in South Sumatra province, topped the list with 3,064 fire alerts, more than half of which were on peatlands. PT Rimba Hutani Mas, with concessions in South Sumatra and Jambi, and PT Bumi Andalas Permai in South Sumatra were also on the list.

In 2015, the NEA launched an investigation into these three APP suppliers and one other, PT Sebangun Bumi Andalas Woods Industries, under the Republic's Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA).

The Act targets those responsible for causing or condoning fires if burning results in unhealthy levels of haze in Singapore - defined as a 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index value of 101 or greater for 24 hours or more.

An NEA spokesman told The Straits Times its investigation into the four Indonesian companies (PT Bumi Andalas Permai, PT Bumi Mekar Hijau, PT Sebangun Bumi Andalas Woods Industries and PT Rimba Hutani Mas) remains open.

"As part of its investigations, NEA had also written to Asia Pulp & Paper Company Limited, pursuant to Section 10 of the THPA 2014, to request information on the four suppliers, and it has provided NEA some information in response to the Section 10 Notices. NEA has no further questions for Asia Pulp & Paper Company Limited at this time," the spokesman said.

"Regarding whether APP can respond to the notices, we note that the four suppliers and APPCL are separate legal entities, and the notices are issued to the four suppliers."

Large areas of industrial wood concessions in Indonesia are on cleared peatlands, which have huge drainage canals. APP and April have plantations on peatlands in Sumatra and Kalimantan totalling about 750,000ha, about 10 times the size of Singapore. The companies stress that they carefully manage water levels on their concessions to cut fire risk.

Not all fires in Indonesia are caused by companies. Many are lit by smallholder farmers to clear the land to plant crops. Others are lit illegally inside company concessions during land disputes or by illegal loggers.

Many larger pulpwood and palm oil companies also have dedicated fire-fighting crews and can face hefty penalties for fires within their concessions.

However, non-government organisations (NGOs) point out that despite company efforts to minimise the fire risks, planting across vast areas of peatlands makes the landscape more prone to fires, especially during very dry seasons, when water table levels fall.

They also point out that expansion to boost wood pulp production for paper or dissolving pulp for rayon adds further pressure on fragile peatlands and locks in the use of peatlands for decades to come.

APP completed a multibillion-dollar mill with an annual capacity of 2.8 million tonnes in South Sumatra three years ago, while April's sister company Asia Pacific Rayon is building a $1 billion factory alongside the April mill in Riau to produce viscose rayon to make clothing and personal hygiene products.

April says the new factory does not increase the capacity of the pulp mill complex in Riau but NGOs point out that the viscose plant will rely on a specific type of acacia tree that grows best on peatlands.

APP says fluctuations in wood demand for the new mill will be met by importing certified wood chips from suppliers, not through deforestation or the development of new peatland plantations.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 19, 2019, with the headline 3 firms in NEA probe top NGOs' fire alert list. Subscribe