JAKARTA — Indonesia’s government blamed eight companies, including Jakarta-based PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART) and Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL), for the raging forest fires yesterday that blanketed neighbouring Singapore in record levels of hazardous smog for a third straight day.
“The majority of hotspots in Riau (province) are inside APRIL and Sinar Mas concessions,” senior presidential aide Kuntoro Mangkusubroto told Reuters. An APRIL statement said the company and third-party suppliers had a “strict no-burn policy” for all concessions in Indonesia.
A spokeswoman for Golden Agri Resources, SMART’s Singapore-listed parent, said the company knew of no hotspots on its concessions.
“Given the current situation, we have intensified our fire surveillance patrols with sufficient firefighting equipment,” she said.
“If illegal fires are started near our estates, we will take prompt action to put them out and report to the local authorities.”
Meanwhile, CTP Holdings, a joint venture between Cargill and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, reiterated its strict no-burn policy and has confirmed that there are no hotspots or fires on its plantations.
Temasek said on its website that it had sent a team to South Sumatra to verify that there were no hotspots or fires on CTP’s plantations.
Non-government organisation World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said it was ready to help Singapore and Indonesia “identify the perpetrators behind the worst haze experienced by Singapore in two decades”.
“Singapore’s air pollution ... underscores that deforestation is a global problem and that the slash-and-burn clearing of lands for the commodities of palm oil and paper affects us all,” said the WWF, which called on governments in the region to “work closer together, partner with organisations to get to the root of the problem and seek out irresponsible companies”.
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