JAKARTA: More local and foreign companies have been named suspects in wildfire investigations launched across Kalimantan and Sumatra over the past week, as calls to hold haze-causing polluters accountable grow louder.
The Forestry Ministry charged two companies on Saturday as part of its wider, ongoing probes into forest and peatland fires across the two islands. Palm oil company GAP, whose parent company is based in Singapore, was accused of causing fires that later drifted into a nearby forest area between 2025 and 2026 in East Kotawaringin, Central Kalimantan.
According to the ministry, the burned area reached 901 hectares, or the size of around 1,260 standard soccer pitches.
Another company, identified only by their initials as MAP, was allegedly responsible for land-clearing fires that have scorched its concession in a forested area around the Mempawah River in West Kalimantan.
MAP holds a forest utilization permit (PBPH), which is typically leased for pulpwood and timber plantations.
“Laws in Indonesia apply equally to every company operating in the country, whether they use domestic or foreign capital investments,” the ministry’s law enforcement director general Dwi Januanto Nugroho said in a statement.
The new suspects added to the growing list of individuals and companies implicated in wildfire cases in 10 provinces across Kalimantan, Sumatra and Sulawesi in the past week.
As of Thursday, the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) has named 245 individuals and 20 corporations suspects for either alleged deliberate land-clearing fires or negligence that resulted in public health emergencies, environmental damage and regional haze.
Malaysian-owned company RKA, South Korean company API and two Singaporean-owned companies HKI and AI were among those named suspects. Bareskrim chief Comr. Gen. Asep Safrudin said that more corporate suspects could be expected in the coming weeks.
Separately on Saturday, the Singaporean National Environment Agency (NEA) announced that seven agricultural companies registered in the city-state had either agreed or expressed willingness to cooperate with a panel of investigators and law firms established to launch assessments under the 2014 Singaporean Transboundary Haze Pollution Act.
The companies were among the ten companies operating plantations in Indonesia that were summoned by Singaporean government officials on Wednesday over alleged haze-causing fires.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has renewed calls for state accountability for the public health consequences arising from the toxic haze after more than 300,000 people suffered from respiratory infections.
The environmental watchdog also demanded ecological restoration from companies responsible for the fires. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
