Fire Management

We are highly aware of the regional concerns surrounding GHG emissions and haze resulting from land burning in Kalimantan and Sumatra, and are taking proactive measures to ensure that we are part of the solution to this issue which has high environmental and public health costs.

From our inception, we adopted a strict zero-burning policy – which bans all use of fire for land clearing and waste disposal within our plantations and plasma developments. As part of our sustainability policy implementation, we are exploring further ways to develop more robust fire prevention measures. Some of the measures which we had implemented are:

• Satellite monitoring
  We detect and monitor hotspots using satellite information from such platform like NASA and Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi and Geofisika.  This information are then overlaid with our plantation boundary maps and ground verification are then conducted for hotspots that appears within or near to our plantation boundaries;
• Mapping
  We map fire-prone area in and around our plantations, inclusive of villages that are very near to our plantations. This information is updated regularly and shared via signage, information boards and briefing to employees and fire-fighting team.
  We have also developed a fire index system (based on humidity, rainfall pattern, past history and general condition of vegetation) with its corresponding standard operating procedures and instructions for the patrolling, fire-fighting and safety and health teams and general management.
  We use command control centre concept for fire management and fire-fighting activities
• Machineries, Equipment, and Watch Towers
  All units of the estates and plantations are provided with a standard list of machineries and equipment and audits are conducted to ensure that these machineries and equipment are in properly maintained and in compliance to regulation.
  Watch towers had been built to improve on fire detection.