Jakarta, Ekuatorial – Not only seventeen companies in Riau were found incapable of preventing forest fires, the audit also revealed that local governments have failed to protect their areas, said Bambang Hero Saharjo, chief of the National Joint Team on Company Compliance, on a press conference on Friday (10/10).
The team had just released an audit conducted between July 1st and August 25th towards 17 companies and six districts/cities, — Bengkalis, Siak, Indragiri Hilir, Dumai city, Rokan Hilir, and Meranti Islands, in Riau province.
It was chosen because of 93.6 percent out of the total 12,541 hotspots were discovered between Jan 2 to Mar 13 in the province.
The audit revealed that 17 companies were found did not comply to regulations related to tackling land and forest fires. Meanwhile, in the district/city category, only Bengkalis considered as comply while Dumai, Rokan Hilir, Indragiri Hilir, and Meranti Islands fell into lack comply, and Siak was categorized as mild-comply.
“The fact that all 17 companies being audited, all of them were operating in peatlands. This is fatal [mistake] because peatlands are not supposed to be turned into concessions,” said Saharjo adding that it also proved local governments of Riau did not protect its peatlands.
Furthermore, he said that companies given concessions permits did not have proper equipments and resources to tackle forest fires. “This is a serious situation because companies which do not have sufficient fire fighters facilities and resources should not be given permits,” he said.
The team, he continued also found that local governments did not monitor on those companies. “We discovered that several of the companies have never been inspected by local government, forestry agency, plantation agency, or even forestry agency,” he added.
Himsar Sirait, Deputy for Legal Compliance at the Ministry of Environment, said that the audit had revealed that the culprits were local governments and companies. “From these findings, it is no surprise that Riau must deal with land and forest fires every year. The main culprit is clear, it’s local governments and companies,” said Sirait adding that the ministry was investigating six companies,– PT SPM, PT SRL, PT JJP, PT RUJ, PT BNS, and PT NSP–.
The team had also recommended few steps to tackle land and forest fires in Riau, which covered policies on burned areas, permits for peatlands, monitoring and evaluation, also capacity building for local government. In addition, establishing fire care community and incentives for those managed to protect their areas from fires. Januar Hakam.
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17 companies in Riau failed in preventing forest fires, an audit reveals