Singapore widens haze probe to local firms linked to Indonesian fires
SINGAPORE: Singapore expanded on Friday its probe into companies linked to fires in Indonesia, asking 10 locally-based firms for information about their efforts to contain blazes blamed for toxic haze covering the region.
Singapore has broadened its investigation into companies linked to Indonesian forest fires, requesting details from 10 local firms about their efforts to combat the blazes, which have created hazardous air quality across the region. The city-state has intensified measures to address the persistent fires, threatening legal action against those responsible.
Over the past week, Singapore alerted 10 foreign companies, urging them to deploy firefighting teams, cease new fire-starting activities in Indonesia, and submit information about their connections with related Indonesian and Singaporean entities. The National Environmental Agency (NEA) is reviewing this data. Furthermore, the NEA is seeking information from 10 Singapore-registered firms in the palm oil or forestry sectors involved with Indonesian land, including their land concessions' locations and fire prevention or firefighting actions.
Singapore also intends to establish an expert panel comprising law, audit, and investigative firms specializing in cross-border inquiries to assist its probe. Indonesia routinely experiences wildfires during its dry season, with experts attributing the recent fires to extensive deforestation and peatland drainage, rendering once-fire-resistant terrain susceptible.
This year's fires, intensified by an extreme El Nino cycle and resulting drought, have burned approximately two million hectares, according to deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas. The infernos have ravaged forests, peatlands, and palm oil and timber plantations supplying global corporations. Civil society organizations have consistently blamed companies for the blazes, pinpointing "hotspots" in supplier plantations, often referred to as concessions.
Several implicated firms, including Singapore-listed First Resources and Singapore-registered Asia Pulp and Paper, have denied involvement in the fires. Despite these denials, both companies are among those named by the NEA in the latest update on Singapore's probe. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur remain among the world's top 10 most polluted major cities, according to Swiss-based air monitor IQAir.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
