Greenpeace is calling on the Indonesian government to stop all
land clearing operations in fragile forest environments in order to
break this annual cycle, which is destroying large tracts of
forests in Sumatra, Indonesia, home of some of the world's most
endangered animals, like the Sumatran rhinoceros, tiger and the
Forest clearing for acacia pulpwood and oil palm plantations are
the leading causes of the fires and also a factor in creating
environmental conditions that perpetuate the problem.
"Most of the forests in the area are peatland forests,"
Greenpeace forest campaigner Hapsoro said. "Once these peat swamps
are exposed due to logging, clearing for canals and concessions,
they dry out like a wet sponge exposed to sunlight and become
extremely flammable. Unless the conversion of these types of
forests is stopped we will continue to experience large scale
forest fires and continued environmental destruction on an annual
"The Indonesian government must seriously reconsider allowing
any type of land clearing to be done in these areas to minimise the
possibility of large and uncontrolled forest fires in Indonesia" he
Conversion of peatland and forest fires are also doing
environmental damage on a global scale by releasing massive
quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere further
adding to the problem of climate change.
"Release of CO2 from forests destruction especially fires (human
induced or otherwise) exacerbates climate change which in turn
creates drier conditions that exacerbate forest fires, locking the
planet into a vicious and destructive cycle," Greenpeace South East
Asia climate campaigner, Nur Hidayati said. "National, regional and
international efforts must be made to protect these forests from
illegal logging, forest conversion and fires in order to protect
humanity from the
adverse effects of climate change."
There are 4 million hectares of peatland in Riau alone. Large
pulp and paper corporations like APP and APRIL are receiving
woodchip from logging operations which convert peatland forests in
Riau for pulp wood plantations. In the Bukit Batu forest area,
Greenpeace found a forest fire located in PT. Satria Perkasa Agung
concession - a pulpwood plantation subsidiary company under Sinar
Mas Forestry. Sinar Mas Forestry is a sister company of APP. While
both companies apply a zero burning policy in their concessions
they are still susceptible to fire.
"The problem with these concessions is that they are operating
in a very fragile forest ecosystem," Mr Hapsoro said. "One small
fire started on the edge of, or accidentally within, these
concessions can easily burn all of this dry swamp. Once it starts
burning it is very difficult to stop without heavy rain."
Greenpeace calls on the Indonesian government to:
1. Declare the forest fires a national disaster/state of
emergency and to enable movement of resources to combat the
2. Investigate and hold liable plantation companies responsible
for slash and burn clearing,
3. Put in place permanent mechanisms to build capacity to
assess vulnerability, develop regional climate models and design
and assess adaptation strategies that consider the vulnerability
of local communities and indigenous species.
4. To stop all forest clearing in fragile peatland eco-systems,
including the extension of new area for both pulpwood and oil palm