Gasoline and diesel vehicles and factories are conspicuous sources of air pollution in Southeast Asia and elsewhere, but they're not the only ones. For example, if you take a stroll in Palembang, the provincial capital of South Sumatra, you may notice people burning garbage. The reason? Garbage collection is often inadequate. Nevertheless by doing so, households have chosen one of the worst solutions in terms of public health, and they set a poor example for children who have fun burning pieces of wood in the streets.

Due to forest fires, the situation worsens considerably in South Sumatra during the dry season. These fires are a result of slash-and-burn and peatland draining by companies and farmers who want to clear their land cheaply for planting crops. It temporarily improves soil fertility and reduces acidity and pests, but the dried peat is highly flammable, it burns underground and a single fire can easily spread out of control.

What are the police doing? Since a local act from 2016 forbids any fire, they sometimes catch a perpetrator, fine him and even send him to jail. But it's just the tip of the iceberg. Using fire to clear land is generally illegal, but oversight is poor and corruption is rife. An activist for Greenpeace Indonesia summarizes the situation: "The police arrest people, but not the companies".

Let's go back 40 years ago. In the 1980s the Indonesian government wanted to make the country a major pulp and paper producer and converted huge areas into Industrial Forest Plantation (HTIs). Later in 2003 it allowed to set up plantations without feasibility studies. The impact on the environment was disastrous, with forest and peatland cleared and the timber removed.

Forest fire in Kalimantan, Borneo - As in Sumatra, forest fires are common in this province.  (Photo by David Gaveau)

The development of large-scale pulpwood plantations owned by large companies has become the major driver for fires, leading to smoke episodes of gigantic proportions during the dry season all over the region, including Palembang. It can come to a stage where almost unbreathable air engulfs a huge part of Indonesia and extends North to Singapore and Malaysia and even Southern Thailand (the recent peak of air pollution in Thailand is not linked to fires in Indonesia), sometimes delaying planes because of poor visibility and forcing the closure of hundreds of schools, not only in Indonesia, but in Malaysia too, as witnessed in 2015, 2019 and 2023. The situation was especially serious in 2015 when fires destroyed 26 000 km² of land in Indonesia, mainly peatland. Last year was slightly less critical because of a more intense rainy season.

These fires release a mixture of toxic gases that trigger acute respiratory infections and increase the risk of life-threatening strokes, heart attacks, and cancer According to a November 2024 study published by The Lancet, air pollution caused by fires is linked to more than 1.5 million deaths a year worldwide (in 2015 about 91 600 premature deaths in Indonesia) - not to mention economic and financial losses.

Pollution reached such a point that previous president Jokowi Widodo (nicknamed Joko) had promised to prosecute fire-linked companies, and he did: On February 3, 2015, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry sued pulp and paper supplier Bumi Mekar Hijau (BMH) – which ironically means “Green Blooming Earth” – for a fire on 200 km² of its concessions, mainly peatland, in 2014. Eventually on August 12, 2016, the Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the government: BMH was sentenced to pay $6 million for damage, but not for restoration - peanuts compared to the $600 million the government was asking for full restoration. Such a fine doesn't deter companies from continuing to burn their concessions as a cheap way of clearing the land: law enforcement in Indonesia isn’t effective enough to prevent fires.

Conversely, in 2016 a group of citizens and environmental activists in Kalimantan province launched a civil lawsuit against the government, including the Indonesian president, over the damage from fires in 2015. But in 2022 the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the president was not liable for the 2015 fires. Three years later, in 2019, 32 Jakarta residents initiated a civil lawsuit against government officials, including the president, for failing to tackle air pollution over the city. It took several years for the procedure to be completed, and eventually in 2023 the Supreme Court confirmed the original ruling from the Central Jakarta District Court compelling the authorities to implement measures to improve Jakarta's air quality. What happened next? In spite of the verdict, not much action was taken.

Last August, supported by a coalition of NGOs known as the South Sumatra Smoke Suit Initiative, 11 residents of South Sumatra filed a civil suit against three pulpwood plantation companies for the chronic smoke haze produced by recurring fires on their concessions. They are BMH, Bumi Andalas Permai (BAP), and Sebangun Bumi Andalas Wood Industries (SBA). The plaintiffs seek compensation for the consequences of fires linked to these companies. As citizens, they cannot ask for restoration, so Greenpeace joined them because as an environmental NGO issue it can ask for restoration. The first major hearing happened on December 12, 2024 at the Palembang District Court.

"They bring disaster to the people"

Muhkamat Arif (left) and Muhammad Husni (right), two plaintiffs in the lawsuit. (Photos by Patrice Victor)

It is the first lawsuit initiated by citizens in the province. "Haze happens often, to the point some people think pollution and forest fires are natural disasters, somehow God's will, so they remain silent and rarely protest", comments Caesar Aditya, one of their lawyers. In this context, with some others, the 11 plaintiffs appear to be the vanguard of a growing trend in Indonesia to take action against fires and pollution. They are farmers, rubber tappers, fishermen, buffalo breeders and environmental activists who live under a thick haze of air pollution during the dry season in Palembang and villages in Ogan Komering Ilir regency in South Sumatra. Environmental degradation and air pollution threaten their health and make it harder and more expensive for them to cultivate their land or raise livestock.

Let's listen to some of them. Muhkamat Arif, 37- year-old, lives in Seriguna, a village of about 800 inhabitants in Ogan Komering Ilir regency. He is a farmer, a member of the Farmers Union and a construction worker when not in the fields: "As a farmer I go to the paddy fields 3 or 4 times a week from 6 am to 9 am with other farmers. We check the water level and other plants such as tomatoes. Then from 9 am to 2 pm we go to our rubber plantations. The companies started their operation in 2012 and the problems started in 2015. During the fire season we can only see a few meters ahead. Every year the school is closed due to the haze during a period of time (2 months in 2015, 1 week in 2023 and 1 week in 2024 in Seriguna). When I don't go to the fields, I work in building construction. I'm hired by private individuals in Kayn Agung, a town and the capital of Ogan Komering Ilir Regency (62694 inhabitants in 2010), about 20 km from my place. I usually go to Kayn at 7 in the morning by motorcycle, but during the fire season the haze is so thick that it looks dangerous. For health and safety reasons, I stop working at construction sites during the fire season."

Another plaintiff is 26-year-old Muhammad Husni. He is a student at the Sriwijaya agriculture faculty in Palembang and he lives in the city. He feels concerned by the environmental issues: "I want to fight for the environment. I believe my ideas are shared by only a minority of people, not many people care about the environment. It's why last August I joined the Green Party (Sarekat Hijau) and I decided to become a plaintiff. I hope it will encourage people to fight for their rights." 

He underlines the economic and social consequences of the haze, particularly for farmers. And he concludes, "The companies have got large concessions, but they don't bring prosperity to the people, they bring disaster".

The companies targeted by the lawsuit have drained the peatland in their concession to grow acacia trees, whose short fiber is very convenient for paper making, but peatland drainage for acacia plantation on an industrial scale has created a "tinderbox environment" for fires in the words of Asep Komarudin, Greenpeace Indonesia's Senior Forest Campaigner.

All three companies are timber suppliers to APP (Asia Pulp and Paper), the largest pulp and paper producer in Indonesia. Previously, APP and its pulpwood suppliers had a history of nearly 30 years of being allegedly linked to deforestation in the region. In 2018, the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) recommended companies and financial investors to end their business relationships with APP and its affiliates. APP itself is a subsidiary of the Sinar Mas Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia, owned by the billionaire Widjaja family.

If sometimes uncontrolled external fires can quickly spread into APP's concessions and if APP does not deliberately set fire to its peatland, contrary to its claims, between 2018 and 2020 its suppliers were involved in the draining of peatland which are extremely vulnerable to fire outbreaks. In a September 2024 document it admits that “some parts of the protected areas are in degraded condition, due to illegal logging, encroachment and fire throughout the years.” In the same document, APP states that in 2023 0.008% of its suppliers’ concession areas were impacted by fire. According to this document and to another APP document from 2021, the total of APP-owned and supplier-owned concessions in Indonesia is 23868 km², so it would be less than 2 km² impacted by fire. Such a small figure is completely unrealistic - according to Greenpeace, more than 127 km² burned in 2023 within APP suppliers' concessions.

True, APP has taken steps to reduce fire incidents through its advanced fire management system, but given the size of its concession area and the incommensurable difficulty to stop an underground peatland fire, it doesn't solve the problem. The most effective method to prevent peatland fires is rewetting and reforestation, however for societal and practical reasons, rewetting on a large scale is hardly applicable.

On its website, APP claims it applies standards for sustainable forest management, and states that 405 villages have benefited from its Integrated Forestry and Farming Program. The financial burden of fire is enormous. For instance, 2015 fires cost Indonesia $16 billion. It dwarfs the $10 million fund created by APP for its community empowerment program (DMPA, Desa Makmur Peduli Api, Prosperous Villages Care About Fire) since its inception in 2015. 

APP didn't respond to Prachatai's request for comment.

In October 2023, in a response to a report by Greenpeace, APP maintained to be "very keenly aware that there are a number of conflicts with local communities across its supplier concession areas". According to a study by the Environmental Paper Network, a worldwide network of NGOs, a few years ago, 16 villages in South Sumatra were in conflict with APP or its suppliers (the real number is probably higher). The problem is compounded by unclear land ownership or unrecognized traditional land rights. Sometimes the communities are divided between those who accept compensation for plantation (usually acacia or oil palm trees) and those who reject it due to concerns about long-term environmental and social impacts. 

Harassment and repression

In Indonesia, scientists working on environmental issues are steadily repressed. For instance a few weeks ago, on January 8, an environmental scientist, Bambang Saharjo, professor at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, was reported to the police for putting the mining industry "under a bad light" because of his testimony in a case of illegal mining in Bangka-Belitung Islands, South Sumatra. Another example: in 2020, a French researcher at the Center for International Forestry Research, David Gaveau, was expelled from Indonesia after publishing an estimate of the 2019 wildfires that far exceeded official data. More broadly, scientists working on environmental issues can be banned from continuing their research if their conclusion contradicts official assertions or data.

An environmental NGO like Greenpeace has been harassed. After the COP26 (United Nations Climate Change Conference) in Glasgow in 2021, an Indonesian official, Husin Shahab, reported to the Indonesian police two Greenpeace Indonesia members, Leonard Simanjuntak, president of Greenpeace Indonesia, and Kiki Taufik, global head of Greenpeace Indonesian forest campaign, for criticizing and calling "nonsense" a statement by president Jokowi according to which “Indonesia deforestation data 2019–2020 has been reaching the lowest level since the last two decades”. In reality, data from the Forestry Ministry show an increase in deforestation. After public criticism, eventually the official withdrew his complaint. Physical violence against activists and journalists sometimes erupts in Indonesia and more widely in the region. For instance an environmental activist, Sulvianto Alias, was assaulted on December 20, 2024 in West Papua. The same year in Cambodia, on December 7, a journalist, Chhoeung Chheng, died from his wounds after being shot while investigating on illegal logging in the country. In Thailand, human rights defenders and environmental activists are often under threat.

As wildfires around the globe are becoming more frequent and intense, as we have seen in California, and their economic and health impacts are posing a growing problem, efforts to limit them are critical. Against this background, the lawsuit initiated by the 11 citizens of South Sumatra and Greenpeace can be seen as a fight for the common good, raising public awareness about the risks associated with fires, pressuring companies to reduce their environmental impact, and encouraging a better enforcement of environmental regulations. Could this case represent an opening to real environmental justice?