Study Links Large Palm Oil and Pulpwood Concessions to Massive Indonesian Forest Fires

“It’s not really a question of who lit the match, but who drained the peat and created the conditions,” said Alex Helan, Rainforest Action Network’s research and investigations lead.

Thousands of hectares of land on palm oil and pulpwood concessions operated by large listed firms burned during Indonesia’s worst fire season in years, according to a joint study by Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and Nusantara Atlas.

The findings, released Friday, suggest that deforestation and land clearing played a significant role in the destruction. Yahoo News Singapore reported that the fires caused a spike in respiratory illnesses and triggered school closures across the region as fire emissions surged to three times the seasonal average.

The scale of the environmental damage is immense. Between January and October this year, a total of 2.88 million hectares of land were damaged by fire. This figure represents a 35% increase compared to the same period in 2019, which was the last year Indonesia experienced similar “super-El Niño” conditions, according to Nusantara Atlas.

Government moves to revoke land rights

The Indonesian government is responding with administrative force. Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning Minister Nusron Wahid announced on Monday, Nov. 9, that the state is moving to revoke or review land-use rights for 11 companies linked to forest and land fires, JournalArta reported. These companies operate across South, West, and East Kalimantan.

Study Links Large Palm Oil and Pulpwood Concessions to Massive Indonesian Forest Fires — Photo: ANTARA News

The government has categorized these firms into five distinct groups based on the severity of their involvement. Some face full revocation because fires repeatedly occurred within their licensed areas, burned more than half of the land, or because the companies lacked the necessary infrastructure to mitigate fires. This group includes PT MIB, PT RKA, and PT SKM.

Other companies face different penalties. For example, the state will take over land from PT PSLT because its land-use right expired in 2020, according to Nusron Wahid. Other firms, such as PT ANI, PT BOS, and PT AER, will see their applications for land-use rights canceled.

For companies like PT SAE, the government may only revoke a portion of their land-use rights depending on the ratio of burned area to total licensed land.

Corporate holdings under scrutiny

The study by RAN and Nusantara Atlas highlighted specific outbreaks on large holdings, some of which are tied to business groups under investigation in Singapore under its transboundary haze law. The analysis pointed to the risks of degraded peatlands and inadequate fire management in expanding agricultural concessions.

Specific cases identified in the study include:

Company / Concession	Area Burned (Hectares)	Context
PT Bumi Mekar Hijau	Over 14,600	Exclusive supplier to Asia Pulp & Paper
PT Kayung Agro Lestari	At least 3,742	Includes ~2,000 hectares of high conservation value forest
Bumitama Agri	4,473	88% of burned area was on fire-prone peatland

First Resources, which runs the PT Kayung Agro Lestari concession, told RAN it observed a “zero burning policy” and had implemented prevention measures, though it did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Bumitama Agri told RAN that investigations are ongoing and the company was not yet in a position to respond to specific allegations. Asia Pulp & Paper said it was unable to comment on the findings regarding its supplier.

The environmental organization WALHI has pushed for even stricter accountability. The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) has urged the Indonesian National Police to publicly disclose the identities of 20 corporations named as suspects in ongoing cases involving 29,168.78 hectares of burned land, ANTARA News reported.

“There must be firm action, ranging from the suspension to the revocation of business licenses, against corporations proven to have been negligent or to have deliberately set fires on their concession lands,” said Sri Hartini, WALHI West Kalimantan Executive Director.

BNPB develops spatial tracking for land fire identification

To prevent future occurrences, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) is developing a tracking system that integrates spatial data with licensing information. This allows officials to see whether a hotspot falls within a specific company’s Business Use Rights (HGU) or forestry concession. VOI.ID reported that this system enables the government to identify parties who manage land where fires are detected in real-time.

The economic and social stakes of these fires extend far beyond the loss of timber and palm oil. Beyond the immediate environmental destruction, the haze creates a massive public health burden. WALHI has called for companies found responsible to fund the full restoration of peat ecosystems and to compensate the public for health damages caused by seasonal haze.

The debate remains centered on the tension between industrial agricultural expansion and environmental preservation. While companies often cite "zero burning" policies, investigators and environmental groups argue that draining peatlands for plantations creates conditions that are inherently primed for catastrophe.

“These companies have made business decisions in their offices … to operate in an extremely fire-prone landscape, and to develop plantations in those landscapes for profit,” said Alex Helan.