Indonesian court convicts a company of causing fires
Tuesday, August 30, 2016 5:45 am
Pulp and paper supplier PT Bumi Mekar Hijau was ordered to pay the equivalent of $6 million by an appeals court in South Sumatra, in a reversal of an earlier decision that saw the firm cleared of wrongdoing. In December 2015, plantation company PT Bumi Mekar Hijau was acquitted in a civil suit the government had filed against it for letting fires ravage its land in 2014. Now, an appeals court has reversed that decision, ordering the company to pay $6 million in compensation. Environmentalists wished the company had been made to pay a higher penalty, given that the government was asking for more than $600 million. The 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis cost Indonesia $16 billion, according to the World Bank. Environmental campaigners welcomed the guilty verdict while also expressing disappointment over the 79 billion rupiah ($6 million) penalty that PT BMH was ordered to pay. The acacia grower had been sued by the government for more than 100 times that amount. The World Bank said last year's fires alone cost Indonesia more than $16 billion. "At the very least, the decision of the Palembang High Court is appreciated because it declares that PT BMH did commit an unlawful act related to forest fires," said Hadi Jatmiko, head of the South Sumatra branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), a national NGO. But he added that "in our opinion, the high court decision is insufficient in acting as a deterrent." The annual fires are a result of slash-and-burn practices by companies and farmers aiming to clear their land cheaply for planting. Using fire to clear land is generally illegal, but oversight is poor and corruption is rife. The problem is compounded because Indonesia's vast peat swamp zones have been widely drained for large-scale agriculture, and the dried peat is highly flammable. Last year's fires were especially devastating because of the extended dry season brought on by El NiƱo.
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