Fires have broken out inside palm oil concessions in West
Kalimantan, Indonesia, belonging to suppliers to some of the biggest household
brands in the world, according to analysis
by Greenpeace Indonesia. This includes members of the Roundtable of
Sustainable Palm Oil, the industry’s sustainability certification body.
There has been a huge increase in the number of fire
hotspots across Indonesia in 2018. As many as 9,819 fire hotspots have been
identified this year so far in West Kalimantan, nearly three times the number
identified in all of 2017.
One of the concessions, PT Sumatera Unggul Makmur, has
burned every year since 2013, according to Greenpeace Indonesia’s analysis. It
belongs to Gama, a palm oil company closely connected to the world’s largest
palm oil trader, Wilmar.
Fire hotspots have also been recorded in concessions
belonging to Bumitama and First Resources. All three producers have been
supplying palm oil to major brands, including Mondelez, Nestlé and Unilever,
via Wilmar and other palm oil traders.
