NO ESCAPE: Greenpeace points finger at Sime’s Indon unit for recent haze
NO ESCAPE: Greenpeace points finger at Sime’s Indon unit for recent haze
14 July 2013
published by www.malaysia-chronicle.com
Malaysia / Indonesia — Environmental activist movement Greenpeace has released data purportedly showing the presence of hotspots within the land of a Sime Darby subsidiary in Indonesia that was previously given the all-clear by a palm-oil industry group.
At the height of the haze crisis last month, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) told five member firms to provide satellite maps to be used to judge their role in the haze crisis choking the region.
Malaysias Tabung Haji Plantations, Kuala Lumpur Kepong and Sime Darby along with Indonesias PT Sinar Mas were later given a clean bill of health. Jatim Jaya Perkasa was initially cleared but this was later retracted after it was found that the data it provided was unusable.
But with Indonesia announcing on Friday plans to charge a KL Kepong subsidiary for illegal burning and Greenpeace now providing maps allegedly showing burning in the Sime Darby units compound, the RSPOs actions in clearing its member firms accused of contributing to the deadly haze choking region has come under fire.
[The RSPO] has failed to tackle its members role in creating the conditions that led to such a disaster, nor has it held companies accountable for the impact of their operations, Bustar Maitar, head of Greenpeaces Indonesia forest campaign, was quoted as saying by The Guardian in the UK.
According to the report, Greenpeace said its data indicated the presence of almost 100 hotspots on Jatim Jaya Perkasa property, and over 20 in the estate operated by Sime unit Bumireksa Nusasejati.
Sime previously said its data only showed three such spots in its subsidiarys compound, adding that these were inside the concession areas but located outside the companys operating area as the areas were local communities, who occupied and planted both cash crops such as corn, sugarcane and pineapple as well as perennial crops such as coconut and areca nuts.
The activist group took further aim at the RSPO for only hauling up firms when these were publicly implicated, instead of auditing all its members located within the affected region.
Rather than claiming the innocence of members whove been reported in the media, the RSPO needs to address the real problem ― years of peatland drainage and destruction which is labelled sustainable under RSPO rules and has laid the foundation for these disastrous fires, said Maitar.
The RSPO is a non-profit organisation representing the various stakeholders of the palm oil industry in the pursuit of sustainable practises.
Open burning is prohibited by the RSPO, which also imposes standardised measures to mitigate the risks of wild fires.
Earlier in the week, the body announced that it has cleared four of the five firms implicated for fires in the Sumatran region after examining data provided.
There were, however, a few hot spots present in a minority of the areas, it said in The Guardians report. These hotspots were correctly managed by the respective companies and were extinguished within 24 hours from their appearance.
On Friday, PT Adei Plantations, a unit of Kuala Lumpur Kepong, became the first company to be accused by the police of causing Southeast Asias worst air pollution crisis in 16 years.
They are going to be charged with environmental damage, said national police spokesman Ronny Franky Sompie in an AFP report.
Southeast Asias worst haze crisis took place in 1997-1998, causing widespread health problems and costing the regional economy billions of dollars as a result of business and air transport disruptions.
The now-annual affair triggered allegedly due to land-clearing activities by plantation firms in Indonesia has also caused friction among the ASEAN neighbours, with regular bouts of finger-pointing over which was ultimately to blame for plunging the region into smog.
