Memasuki bulan kemerdekaan Indonesia, nyatanya Indonesia belum merdeka dari ancaman kebakaran hutan dan lahan. Sejak awal Juli 2024, titik panas terdeteksi di Sumatera dan Kalimantan. Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG) Pekanbaru pada Jumat (26/7/2024) mendeteksi 328 titik panas (hotspot) di wilayah Sumatera, 45 di antaranya berada di Riau. Sejak Januari 2024, BPBD Riau mencatat 1.235 hot spot karhutla di Riau, 210 di antaranya merupakan fire spot. Hingga saat ini, kebakaran telah melahap sekitar 1.073,91 hektar lahan gambut dan hutan di berbagai daerah di Riau, termasuk Kabupaten Siak, Rohil, Pelalawan, Meranti, dan Indragiri Hulu.
Eyes on the Forest bulan ini melakukan observasi pembuktian di lapangan (groundtruthing) akan adanya kebakaran hutan dan lahan di konsesi-konsesi Hutan Tanaman Industri (HTI) seperti yang terpantau oleh satelit NASA FIRMS VIIRS kurun Februari – Maret 2021.
Kebakaran lahan PT Arara Abadi di Desa Merbau, Kabupaten Pelalawan yang terjadi pekan lalu menyita kemarahan pembela lingkungan hidup. PT Arara Abadi, pemasok bahan baku untuk Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), diduga sengaja melakukan pembakaran lahan seluas 83 hektar untuk ditanami kembali dengan akasia.
Kebakaran hutan dan lahan di Taman Nasional Tesso Nilo, Kabupaten Pelalawan, belum sepenuhnya berhasil dipadamkan. Tim gabungan Tesso Nilo yang terdiri dari Tim Elephant Flying Squad, Balai TNTN, Polri, dan Masyarakat Peduli Api (MPA binaan Balai Taman Nasional Tesso Nilo) terus melakukan upaya pemadaman di lapangan.
EoF analysed that fire hotspots that NASA Fire VIIRS satellite detected more in Riau province either in peatland or mineral soil as 179 hotspots found in industrial timber plantations (HTI) concessions alone.
Eyes on the Forest coalition analyzed distribution of fire hotspots during week 1-7 August 2017 as its number on peatland in Sumatra reached 351 (NASA FIRM The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite /VIIRS) sensor.
Indonesian Presiden Joko Widodo asked law enforcers to take stern measure in handling forest and land fire cases by revoking permits of companies involving in setting fires, instead of issuing caution.
Eyes on the Forest released a drone video showing huge areas of burnt and still smoldering deep peat soil, and burnt oil palms and natural vegetation in illegal oil palm plantations in Libo block, Rokan Hulu district including in dominant PT. Andika Permata Sawit Lestari (APSL)
Environmentalist group urged the Indonesian Police Chief to review performance of Riau Police Chief for closing 11 of 18 cases of companies investigated for alleged intentional burnings last year
Eyes on the Forest commended the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for issuing a letter and instructions regarding peat management for the prevention and control of fire.
Fires in Indonesia continues unabated. An early estimate by the Indonesian government of the haze crisis cost this year was as high as 465 trillion rupiah (US$34 billion).
Eyes on the Forest (EoF) supports Riau police to name 16 out of 18 timber plantation suppliers and palm oil plantations suspects of forest and land burning in 2015.
EoF News (PEKANBARU)— Eyes on the Forest published NASA’s FIRMS MODIS fire hotspots data and satellite images on its interactive map to allow easy monitoring of current and past fires in Sumatran concessions of the Sinar Mas Group/Asia Pulp & Paper and others.
Sinar Mas Group (SMG) and Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) last week denied publicly that their companies are involved in ongoing forest and land fires. Eyes on the Forest coalition said that media stunt by the giant company is ridiculous and hard to trust.
Eyes on the Forest today published a new animation it produced using MODIS True Color Terra images since 17 August 2015. The animation shows smokes coming out of Asia Pulp & Paper's own PT. Rimba Hutani Mas concession in South Sumatra.
Indonesia Police Headquarters named PT BMH as a suspect of forest fires in South Sumatra and it is the second time the timber supplier of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) convicted to the crime following its legal status in February last year.
President Joko Widodo called stern measures against companies involved in forest and land fires burning by rescinding their licenses, media report said today.
APRIL published an audit report by its consultant Hatfield which confirmed an Eyes on the Forest report that APRIL’s wood supplier, PT. Adindo Hutani Lestari (AHL) in North Kalimantan, had breached APRIL’s forest and peatland clearance moratorium starting 15 May 2015.
Eyes on the Forest says APRIL unable to provide evidence that PT Adindo Hutani Lestari (AHL) in North Kalimantan, an APRIL timber supplier, did not clear natural forest after 15 May, the day when APRIL pledged to halt its forest clearing in its modified Sustainable Forest Management Policy. EoF had reported this moratorium violation on 22 June.
NGOs in West Kalimantan analyzed that 217 fires hotspots detected by NASA Firms Eosdis during 28 June – 6 July 2015. 124 out of 217 hotspots or 57 percent was found in palm oil concessions and by districts, Kubu Raya is the most area hit by fires with 81 and followed by Ketapang and Sambas with 44 and 36 respectively.
Riau province is raged by forest and land fires where EoF analyzed based on NASA Firms Eosdis Data that total 426 fires hostspots detected during June 2015.
A supplier of Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) in North Kalimantan cleared natural forest on peatland in violation of APRIL’s recently launched 2nd version of the Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP).
Commitment on Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 that recently launched by Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) on 3 June 2015 is not a blank cheque nor a public relation stunt as usual to business world and public in whole.
Fires hotspots still haunt Riau province as in recent week there were 114 fire hotspots that analyzed by Eyes on the Forest based on NASA Firms EOSDIS Data, and Bengkalis district still the area mostly suffered by fires with 62 hotspots.
Eyes on the Forest analyzed that 290 fires hotspots accumulatively detected in period of 11 January - 11 February 2015 where Bengkalis district has got 160 of it, the most among the district in Riau Province.
The Ministry of Environment (MoE) has named three companies suspects of forest and land fires that hit Riau in February-March this year, a senior official said last week.
Field investigator team set up by Ministry of Environment (MoE) found strong evidences of the involvement of 23 plantations and industrial timber plantation (HTI) companies of a total of 43 firms investigated in forest and land fires case which had caused severe haze in the beginning of this year, media reported.
Jikalahari and Walhi (Friends of the Earth) Riau suspect the launch of Sustainable Forest Management Policy by APRIL today (Tuesday, 28 January 2014) in Jakarta, as a trick to destroy the remaining natural forest embedded with their illegal and problematic permits in Riau province.
The Ministry for Environment reiterated that probe on Riau’s timber and palm oil companies --who named suspects due to allegedly setting forest and land fires in June-- would be proceeded including to prosecute them with money laundry verdict, an official said.
At least four pulpwood suppliers and three palm oil plantations named suspects for allegations on Riau wildfires in June-July 2013. Some of these suspected companies are timber suppliers to Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resource International Limited (APRIL), a newspaper report said this week.
As their villages are affected by the climate change, eight suburbans of Pelalawan district and Rohil along with Forest Rescue Network Riau (Jikalahari) and Indonesia Centre of Environmental Law (ICEL) officially lay their protest toward the President of RI, Minister of Forestry, Minister of the Environment and Riau Governor at the State Court of Central Jakarta today which is located at Gajah Mada street No 17, Central Jakarta.
As the man-made catastrophe of forest fire and haze returns to Riau, citizens of Pelalawan have to leave their homes and be on the alert to prevent fire coming to their remaining land, while some students fainted as schools closed in the district and the province’s capital city.
Fires hotspots likely got its peak this month on Tuesday (27 August) seeing the 5th largest number of hotspots (758) recorded since 1 June this year, as 26% of that found inside the Tesso Nilo complex.
Last month’s Riau forest fire catastrophe apparently comes to re-occur in this month. Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) of Pekanbaru recorded a significant increase on the numbers of hotspots detected in Riau Province in the last five days which reached to 230 hotspots.
Eyes on the Forest today published photos from field verification trips on 17, 27 and 28 June 2013 in its Google Earth based online Sumatra database. NASA’s FIRMS MODIS fire locations data recorded 9,236 hotspots in Sumatra between 1 and 28 June. 89% were recorded in Riau province (8,229). Majority of the hotspots were recorded on peat soil, suggesting massive carbon emissions.
Sumatra’s Riau province is suffering Indonesia’s worst fire season in recent years with serious smoke choking the region and neighboring Singapore and southern Malaysia. Eyes on the Forest has been tracking forest and land cover change and those who drive it in Riau since the early 1990s.
At least 6772 fires hotspots were detected accumulatively in Riau Province in period of 1-23 June 2013, based on MODIS Fires satellite monitoring that analyzed by Eyes on the Forest this week.
EoF News (PEKANBARU)—A village leader in Giam Siak Kecil – Bukit Batu forest block said that forest and land fires in the area worsened this week, where 500 hectares of community plantations and Sinar Mas pulpwood plantation raged by fires.
Satellite data for the first six months of 2009 show that Riau Province had the largest number of fire “hotspots” in Indonesia: 4,782. And nearly one-quarter of the Riau fires happened within concessions affiliated with Sinar Mas Group’s Asia Pulp & Paper company.
PEKANBARU (EoF News)—At least 229 hotspots were detected by satellite in Riau province during 1-15 June 2009 where pulpwood plantation concessions (HTI) had 79 hotspots, and Selective Logging Concessions (HPH) have been hit with 66 hotspots.
PEKANBARU (EoF News)— Majority of forest and land fires in Riau Province recently detected by satellite from 17 January to 28 January 2009 occurred in peatlands where hotspots found in several concessions of pulpwood plantations (HTI) and palm oil. Protected Area (Kawasan Lindung) and proposed expansion of Tesso Nilo National Park were also raged by fires, Eyes on the Forest analyzed.
The past year has seen more weather records smashed as extreme events take a firmer hold of the planet, says WWF at the start of the UN climate change conference.
Pekanbaru (EoF News) – At least 60 hectares of Tesso Nilo National Park is raged by fires amid raids conducted by the Riau Provincial Natural Conservation Agency (BKSDA) confiscating heavy equipments used by encroachers. Meanwhile, four people who were alleged as encroachers detained by the police of Pelalawan sector in selective logging concession of PT Siak Raya Timber.
Despite the officials in Riau claimed that hotspots detected by satellite has vanished, fires still occur inside Tesso Nilo forest on Monday as observed by WWF monitoring officer. The fires are currently set by the encroachers that occurred in coordinate point of South 00.04.38.9 and East 101. 47. 40. 9 (see picture 1 ).
Inconvenience due to poor visibility and unhealthy condition caused by polluted haze alarmed South East Asia region again as forest fires raging in Sumatra –including Riau—and Kalimantan islands.
Several NGOs are calling on the Government to stop granting concessions for conversion and land clearing on peatlands, citing data that shows the major factor inciting this year's forest fires is forest conversion, mainly on peat soil sites.
Forest fires escalated in Riau province where two protected forests set ablaze and thick haze suffered the province areas in recent days. More hotspots detected and the haze spilled over neighboring countries, reports said.
Visiting Head of DPR’s Commission VII Agusman Effendi said in Pekanbaru Friday (Jul.14) that worries appeared in neighboring countries over haze caused by forest fires have created ASEAN Transboundary Haze Agreement where each of its members should ratify it.