How Strange! Owners Of Big Indonesian Plantations Burn Them, Get Fined, Don't Pay, Burn Them Again

At least three companies whose concessions were burned in the 2015 fires that razed huge swaths of forest in Indonesia are also caught up in this year’s fires, prompting calls by the government for a stern crackdown on repeat offenders. The fires this year, mostly on Sumatra and Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo, have burned 328,000 hectares (810,505 acres) of forest to date. They’ve also generated huge clouds of smoke that have sickened nearly a million people and caused the deaths of several, including a 4-month-old baby and a newborn.

Much of the fires are on land granted as concessions to plantation companies, which have been routinely accused of burning forests as a cheap way of clearing the land in preparation of planting. One such company is palm oil firm PT Ricky Kurniawan Kertapersada: this year, some 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of its concessions have been burned, according to Rasio Ridho Sani, the Indonesian environment ministry’s head of enforcement.

In 2015, 591 hectares (1,460 acres) of the company’s land were also burned, for which it was sued by the government and ordered by a court to pay 192 billion rupiah ($13.6 million) in fines. (It has still not paid.) “And now [the company’s concession] has burned again,” Rasio told reporters in Jakarta on Oct. 1. “We’ve sealed off the concession.”

At least two other companies in Sumatra have also experienced fires on their concessions this year after a similar problem in 2015, according to Rasio. He said the government would impose heavier sanctions on repeat offenders, including revoking their permits entirely. Companies with fires on their concessions typically receive a warning and have their permits suspended temporarily, but are invariably allowed to resume operations soon after.

EDIT

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/indonesia-forest-fires-palm-oil-pulp-paper-concession-greenpeace/