Two environmental groups sent letters to 26 banks in several countries as attempt “to express their concerns regarding the pulp and paper companies Asia Pacific Resources Limited (APRIL), Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) and their sister companies under the conglomerate Royal Golden Eagle Group (RGE), due to their involvement in large scale deforestation and social conflicts.

The President of Indonesia Joko Widodo, accompanied by the Minister of Forestry and Environment Siti Nurbaya, came to Riau province last week to monitor the burned forest areas that caused haze in Sungai Tohor village, Meranti Islands District, media reported.

The second week of month showed the most fire hotspots found in Riau province since fires and haze returned from January. There are total 1605 hotspots detected accumulatively in the province based on NASA Modis Fire monitoring in period of 13-19 February.

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.

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.

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.

A report released by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Washington yesterday called on American companies and consumers to be responsible in using tissue and paper towels by not buying products from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) which linked to rain forest destruction, originating from areas that are the last home for critically endangered species such as Sumatran tigers, elephants, and orangutans.

Pekanbaru (EoF News)—A member of parliament who tackles forestry sector urges the Ministry of Forestry to stop issuing any logging license in Riau and review permits granted to companies, the official House of Representatives website (dpr.go.id) reported Monday (1/10/2007).

Pekanbaru (EoF News)--- The Minister of Forestry Malam S. Kaban slammed the Riau Police over probing against forest crimes allegedly perpetrated by companies saying the law enforcers should not meedle with the "government's area."

Coffee lovers all over the globe are unknowingly drinking coffee that was illegally grown inside one of the world’s most important national parks for tigers, elephants and rhinos, says an investigative report released today by WWF.

A new WWF monitoring report released today reveals that Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the world’s largest paper and pulp companies, is going to destroy one of the most delicate of all remaining ecosystems in Indonesia - the peat swamp forests of Kampar Peninsula in Sumatra.

The Indonesian Government promised its neighboring countries that haze problem caused by forest and land fires will be tackled by 2 September. In Riau, police detained 58 suspects for allegedly set fires, but none represented companies.

Deputy Minister of Environment for Natural Conservation and Environmental Degradation Management, Masnellyarti Hilman, said in Balikpapan of East Kalimantan Thursday that those companies allegedly responsible for forest fires as detected by overlay of hotspots and HPH or HTI concession maps followed by crosschecks with data from Forestry Ministry and Agriculture Ministry, Bisnis Indonesia daily reported Friday (Aug. 25).