The fires in Indonesia are not abating and neither is the public outcry over the haze, its effect on public health and well-being, and the environmental damage. The good name of IOI Corporation Berhad (IOI) and the Malaysian oil palm industry are affected too. We are saddened and very concerned on the issue. Therefore, IOI would like to follow up on our previous statement and provide an update and further clarification.

Palm oil companies who are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), and are certified as sustainable must strictly abide by the zero-burning principle. IOI is among these companies and has been practising zero burning for more than 25 years. Open burning is unconceivable for IOI or any other responsible palm oil producer as open burning uses fire to do land clearing and this would result in the loss of the business license.

Our IOI’s subsidiary in Indonesia has no valid reason to start a fire on its own concession in South Ketapang, West Kalimantan. It would not be in our interest nor would it be aligned with our company’s values to contribute to a major transboundary haze crisis, to cause great disruptions to our own operations, and to damage the conservation areas of which we are the custodian and which we would have to rehabilitate at high cost.

The prolonged dry spell in South Ketapang led to several fires inside and outside of our concessions. These fires were quickly put out by our team. For the past two months, knowing that the El Nino weather pattern was coming to the area, we were prepared and on high alert. We worked closely with local authorities, villagers around our operations and the neighbouring companies to coordinate our actions and help each other. Under our multi-stakeholder South Ketapang Landscape Initiative, we shared information and established a working group among the local stakeholders, including local authorities, to lead and coordinate the fire-prevention and fire-fighting efforts. Our highly-trained fire brigade has been working tirelessly to prevent and fight the fires on our concession areas as well as those near our areas.

There are several contributing factors that cause the difficulty of having wildfires under control, such as prolonged dry spell, peat which is easily inflammable and burns or smoulders underground and travels undetected to other areas, lack of good infrastructure to provide access to affected areas, lack of water to put out fire during drought and a careless act of throwing a cigarette butt which can inadvertently spark a fire. It is not only Indonesia that has problems in keeping wildfires under control, despite all its efforts and good intentions.

Australia, Spain and California all have had this problem but most people treat it as a natural disaster which requires sympathy and help, rather than finger-pointing at who started the fire. In Indonesia’s case, people are quick to put the blame on business corporations like palm oil companies and paper pulp companies. However, blaming the companies after the fires have spread will not solve the haze problem. Instead, a coordinated and preventive approach involving all stakeholders namely the government, companies, local communities and NGOs should be adopted at all times to prevent the problem from becoming too big to handle.

We acknowledge the Indonesian government’s efforts in tackling this complex issue. We will continue working with any interested stakeholders – government, local communities and NGOs – in order to investigate the issues and come up with far-reaching measures to prevent similar outbreaks from happening again. We are aware that both the sustainability of our industry and the public’s well-being depend on such strong and effective measures.