Indonesia banned the use of fires for land-clearing in 1995, but flames are still lit all over Sumatra and Kalimantan each dry season. After all, fire is the easiest and cheapest tool to prepare the land for cultivation, and so far, the law has hauled up few companies.

The Indonesian Government has been severely criticised for failing to act on fire starters. Indonesian media Kompas reported last year that of hundreds of cases investigated, only three plantation companies have been fined collectively a total of Rp11.1mil (RM4,440). They are Cisadane Sawit Raya in Prapat north Sumatra, Jatim Jaya Perkasa and Adei Plantation and Industry, the last two in Riau, central Sumatra.

Dr Bambang Hero Saharjo, a forest fire management expert at the Bogor Agriculture University in Java, says at the height of the 1997/1998 fires which razed 10 million ha and incurred losses of RM38bil, 176 companies were known to have torched the land but only two cases went to court – and both were thrown out due to insufficient evidence.

Bambang assists the government in probes on forest fires. In the course of his investigations, he found 30 cases – all occurring between 2001 and 2003 and involving mostly oil palm plantations, forest plantations and forest conversion – which should go to court. But his recommendations were not taken up.

“Companies which flout the law must be punished. But there is a lack of enforcement,” says Bambang, who was in Palembang last week to advise the authorities on the forest fires.

If companies think they can raze the land and not be punished, they would do it. Take the case of Adei Plantation and Industry, owned by Malaysia’s KL Kepong. A report on the legal process of prosecuting plantation companies for open burning published by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) which Bambang co-authored said the company would have to spend between Rp8mil and Rp10mil (RM3,200 to RM4,000) to clear one hectare of land if fire was not used. With fire, it needed only between Rp700,000 and Rp1mil (RM280 to RM400).

The choice is obvious.

The company was caught and charged in court with lighting 17 fires on its estate in Riau in 1999 and 2000. It was initially fined Rp250mil (RM100,000) and its Malaysian general manager imposed a jail sntence of two years in 2001, but in 2002, these were reduced to Rp100mil (RM40,000) and eight months’ jail upon appeal at the High Court. In 2003, the company also agreed to pay the government a compensation of US$1.1mil (RM4.18mil) to be used to fund reforestation programmes.

The general manager, however, never served the jail sentence as he fled to Malaysia, says Masnelly Yarti Hilman, a deputy minister at the Ministry of Environment.

She says 10 cases involving plantation companies which used fires on their farms last year are pending. Prosecuting the culprits has been tough, she says. “You have to prove that the fires were started deliberately, so you must catch the person in the act. You need enough evidence as plantations owners have claimed that the fires had escaped from the next farm. We need a lot of discussions with various parties to build a strong case and this takes time.”

Provincial land-use maps are also inaccurate, and this weakens enforcement against violations. Masnelly says prosecutors must also contend with an ecology-ignorant judiciary. Not everyone understands the environmental destruction of fires.

Under Probe

Kompas reported last year that the Riau government charged 10 companies for open burning in their plantations in 2003 but the cases were rejected by the Pekan Baru Court. The companies are Jatim Jaya Perkasa, Sribuana Dumai, Arara Abadi, Multi Gambut Industry, Gunung Hasrat Makmur, Mapala Rabda, Selarai Abadi Utama, Alam Sari Lestari, Ekadara Indonesia and Hamidah Hamidi. A source close to the investigation says some of these are Malaysian-owned.

The Riau Pos reported in February that the Indonesia Environmental Impact Management Agency was investigating 10 companies suspected of torching the land in 2004 and cases were in the process of being filed.

The alleged offenders were the same as 2003’s, with the exception of Hamidah Hamidi and a new one, Agro Raya Gematrans. The agency also said that fires were again found in all the companies in February, except for three: Agro Raya Gemastrans, Hamidah Hamidi and Ekadura Indonesia.