Minister of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia Siti Nurbaya claims that the Indonesian Government has imposed administrative sanctions upon 30 companies that are alleged to have caused outbreaks of fire in Indonesia.
“If the companies were proven guilty, the Government then suspended the licenses. The suspension could be temporary or permanent,” writing on her Twitter account on Monday (29 August).
Ada sekitar 30 perush dikenakan sanksi administratif. izin perush yg terbukti bersalah, dicabut sementara sampai pencabutan izin permanen
— Siti Nurbaya Bakar (@SitiNurbayaLHK) August 28, 2016
She also stated that the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has filed suits against 10 companies and are in the process of compiling the accusation to be able to punish the companies.
Currently, Indonesia is in a critical period of forest fires due to the dry season. According to TERRA/AQUA satellite (NASA), the hotspots which had been identified this year decreased as much as 74.70 percent than last year. The satellite only spotted 2,937 hotspots in 2016 from 11,690 hotspots last year.
The Ministry stated that 3,218 hectares of forest and land were burnt in Riau since January and the Law Enforcement Task Force has also been handling 64 crime scene with 84 people as suspects.
On Sunday (28 August), NASA MODIS satellite detected 32 hotspots of forest and land fires in Riau.
To put off the fire, two Air Tractor aeroplanes did low 7 sorties and dropped 27.9 thousand litres of water bomb today (29 August) in the area Pujud Rohil and Kandis Siak.
Four water bombing helicopters are also operating in the area Tasik Serai Bengkali , Karya Indah district Tapung Kampar and Rokan Hilir Pujud .
Siti said that the efforts the Government has taken are not due to pressure from other countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, although the Government respects the complaints made by the countries.
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has applied temporary moratorium on forest management permits, palm plantation and management of peatlands. This is one of the Ministry’s efforts to evaluate and fix the natural resource management regarding environmental factor.
