Thousands of hectares burnt on land owned by listed Indonesian firms, study shows 

By Dewi Kurniawati and David Stanway

JAKARTA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Thousands of hectares of land on palm oil and pulpwood concessions run by large listed firms were burnt during Indonesia's worst fire season in years, highlighting the role of deforestation and land clearing, a study showed on Friday.

Indonesia's forest fires caused a spike in respiratory illness at home and triggered air pollution warnings and school closures across the region, with fire emissions surging to three times the seasonal average.

A total of 2.88 million hectares (7.1 million acres) of land were damaged by fire from January to October this year, driven by intense El Niño weather conditions and extreme heat, as well as clearing of forests to make way for industrial-scale palm oil and pulpwood plantations, according to a joint study by Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and geomonitoring platform Nusantara Atlas.

The amount of fire-damaged land in the first three quarters of this year was 35% higher than in the same period of 2019, the last year Indonesia faced strong "super-El Nino" conditions, Nusantara Atlas said.

While the analysis did not establish how the fires were ignited, it highlighted the risks associated with degraded peatlands and inadequate fire management regimes in rapidly expanding agricultural concessions, along with the role played by banks in financing deforestation.

"It's not really a question of who lit the match, but who drained the peat and created the conditions," said Alex Helan, RAN's research and investigations lead.

The study looked at specific cases of fire outbreaks on large holdings, including ones run by business groups under investigation in Singapore as part of its transboundary haze law.

It found that more than 14,600 hectares of land were burned on the PT Bumi Mekar Hijau pulpwood concession, an exclusive supplier to Singapore's Asia Pulp & Paper. APP said it was unable to comment on the findings.

It also identified at least 3,742 hectares of burned land within the PT Kayung Agro Lestari oil palm concession in West Kalimantan, run by the Singapore-listed First Resources FRLD.SI, including nearly 2,000 hectares of forest designated as "high conservation value".

First Resources did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, but told RAN it observed a "zero burning policy" when clearing land and had implemented fire prevention measures.

Satellite analysis also identified 4,473 hectares of burned areas within an oil palm concession run by Bumitama Agri BUMI.SI, 88% of which was on fire-prone peatland.

Bumitama did not respond to an emailed request for comment but told RAN investigations were ongoing and it was not yet in a position to respond to specific allegations.

The study said banks and investors backing such risky operations in Indonesia need to "make access to financing conditional on credible fire prevention".

"These companies have made business decisions in their offices ... to operate in an extremely fire-prone landscape, and to develop plantations in those landscapes for profit," Helan said.