164 fire hotspots were recorded in Korindo’s PT DP concession in June 2015. Source: Landsat 8, FIRMS, Fire Information for Resource Management System
A new report alleges that Korindo, the largest
palm oil company operating in Indonesian Papua, has destroyed 30,000
hectares of forest on the island since 2013, including through the
criminal use of fire.
Burning
Paradise, published by a coalition of Indonesian and international NGOs,
found that more than a third of the forests destroyed by Korindo were intact
primary forests. Satellite data analysis indicated that ‘hotspot’ data – an
indication of land fires – correlated closely with areas developed soon after
by Korindo for palm oil.
The large-scale use of fire to clear land for oil palm
development is a criminal offence under Indonesian law.
Korindo denied
the allegations in a statement to Reuters and blamed people living
near its concessions for starting the fires. The Ministry of Environment and
Forestry told Reuters it had sent a team to Papua to investigate the allegations.
Korindo is a large Korean conglomerate with interests in
logging, pulpwood, plywood and oil palm. The firm holds 149,000 ha of
oil palm concessions in Papua, and 11,000 ha in Maluku Province. As of June
2016, an estimated 75,000 ha of forests still remained within the company’s
Papuan concessions.
