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| An endangered Orangutan is rescued from the protected Tripa peat swamp forest in Aceh province, which is being destroyed to make way for a palm oil plantation, on Wednesday. (Antara Photo) |
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Indonesia
has launched a criminal investigation into the burning of a peatland forest on
Sumatra island that environmentalists said resulted in the deaths of
orangutans, an official said on Tuesday.
Investigators
will summon officials from two companies suspected of burning a large swath of
the Tripa forest to make way for palm oil plantations, said Sudaryono, the head
of law enforcement at the Environment Ministry.
“Our
investigators found that there have been fires in areas controlled by SPS2 and
KA,” he said, referring to palm oil companies Surya Panen Subur 2 and Kallista
Alam.
A coalition
of local and international conservation groups warned in March that orangutans
in the Tripa forest could disappear by the end of this year unless action was
taken to stop fires and land clearing there.
The
coalition said an estimated 100 orangutans had died in the area in recent years
as a result of land clearing, with only 200 remaining.
The
government’s task force for the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Degradation (REDD) program said there were indications that plantation
companies cleared more than 1,600 hectares of peatland areas even before they
obtained concession permits.
“Law
enforcers concluded that there have been legal violations,” task force chief
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said.
Under
Indonesia’s environmental law, forest clearing using fires is punishable by up
to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 10 billion rupiah ($1 million).
Kallista
Alam has denied wrongdoing and blamed local farmers for the fires.
In May
2011, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a decree committing Indonesia
to a two-year moratorium on new clearing permits for an area of around 60
million hectares of virgin forest and carbon-rich peatland.
The move
was part of the country’s commitment to the REDD program, which aims to reduce
climate change from greenhouse gasses.
But in
August, the then-governor of Aceh province, Irwandi Yusuf, signed a permit to
allow Kallista Alam to operate in Tripa.
The
environmental coalition is awaiting a verdict on an appeal seeking the
revocation of the permit.
Tripa was
included in the moratorium map in April 2011, but it disappeared from a revised
version in November, the local environmental group Walhi said.
Greenpeace
said in a report released this month that the moratorium had done little to
protect forests, with almost 50 percent of the country’s primary forests and
peatland without any protection.
The
destruction of peatlands releases large amounts of carbon dioxide that
contributes to climate change.
Indonesia
is among the largest producers of greenhouse gasses, largely owing to the rapid
destruction of its forests. It aims to reduce the emissions by at least 26
percent by 2020.
DPA
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