es burning in western Indonesia’s R

es burning in western Indonesia’s Riau province are occurring on land managed by timber, palm oil and logging companies, according to a new analysis by World Resources Institute.
The Washington, DC-based environmental research organization said an analysis of data provided by NASA’s heat-detecting satellites show that 52% of more than 1,400 suspected fires in Riau in the past two weeks have been on lands tied to some of Indonesia’s largest industries. Palm oil concessions alone accounted for 38% of suspected fires.
The organization identified company lands using maps obtained from the Indonesian ministry of forestry. In the past, some companies have questioned the accuracy of those maps, which the government doesn’t make publicly available.


Map is courtesy of Google.
Wealthy Riau province, in central Sumatra, is the heart of the world’s largest palm oil industry and home to Indonesia’s biggest pulp and paper companies. Using fire to clear forest areas to make way for new agricultural production is common but illegal for all but the smallest landowners there.
The study by WRI echoes similar findings published by the organization during fires last June, when it said roughly half of thousands of flares also occurred on land belonging to plantation companies. Those fires blanketed neighboring Singapore and Malaysia in haze, sending pollution levels skyrocketing and setting off a few errant words between the countries. No companies
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, said analysis of satellite data conducted by Riau’s own forestry agency shows that “many hotspots”—areas indicative of fires—have occurred on lands belonging to agricultural companies.
Last week authorities declared a state of emergency in Riau after fires sent air pollution to unhealthy levels. This week, fires have continued, with winds blowing the haze pollution south across the province.
As of Monday evening, visibility at the airport in Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, was 200 meters, the disaster mitigation agency said.
More than 30,000 people across Riau have reported respiratory illnesses, with pollution at dangerous levels in several places.
Agricultural fires in Riau are more common in a dry season that runs from about April to October. This February, however, has been “one of the driest on record in Indonesia and neighboring countries, affecting crop yields and setting the stage for burning,” according to the WRI analysis.