Sumatra burns in palm oil rush

[firebird894]

http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... 21hch.html

THE carbon-rich peat forests of northern Sumatra are burning again as palm oil companies break Indonesian law to clear the land for their plantations.

Environmental groups have warned that the local population of critically endangered orang-utans are ''doomed'' unless the fires are stopped.

And smoke from the burning is at times engulfing cities in Malaysia and Thailand, prompting doctors in Kuala Lumpur to warn people with respiratory problems to wear masks.

Photos from the Tripa peat forest in Aceh show widespread burning, which the Indonesian environment ministry's head investigator, Syarifudin Akbar, estimates now covers almost 2000 hectares.

''This is a criminal case because the law says it's a crime to open a land by burning,'' Mr Akbar said.

Environmentalists say the fires were lit by palm oil companies and threaten about 200 orang-utans in the area - one of the densest populations in the world.

More than 3000 of the great apes once lived in the area being cleared. Now just 7000 survive on the whole island of Sumatra, which has been hit in recent years with uncontrolled clearing of primary forests for palm oil plantations.

The latest fires were picked up by satellites last week and confirmed by field staff working for environmental groups.

The environment department, the national police and the government's REDD task force are investigating.

A spokesman for the task force, Achmad Santosa, agreed the forest burning was ''an issue of law enforcement'' and ''exactly the job of the REDD task force, that is to ensure the enforcement of the law''.

The head of the REDD task force, Kuntoro, visited Aceh yesterday to speak to the Governor and check the situation.

But Kamaruddin, a lawyer for the Tripa community, said the various investigations under way were ''proving to be too little too late'' and called for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to intervene.

''These companies simply have to be ordered to stop [clearing] immediately and that order to be strictly enforced, otherwise the peat forests and inhabitants of Tripa will be lost forever,'' he said. Dr Yudhoyono has won global plaudits for saying ''deforestation is a thing of the past'' and that ''losing our tropical rainforests would constitute the ultimate national, global and planetary disaster''.

But that has not stopped the annual ''burning season'' of forests in Borneo and Sumatra as companies take advantage of dry weather to prepare the ground for new plantations.

''Despite all these words and statements and speeches about conserving orang-utans and peat lands and reducing carbon emissions … the evidence is there has been no change,'' said Dr Ian Singleton of the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Program.

Part of the area being burned is owned by palm oil company PT Kallista Alam, which was granted a concession now under challenge in the Indonesian courts. Former Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf said he granted the concession as a wake-up call to the international community over its inaction on a carbon pricing mechanism in Indonesian forests. However, a company spokesman said it had nothing to do with the fire, which had blown into its area from a neighbouring site. The owner of that land, PT Agro Maju Raya, could not be contacted.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... z1zhwsAnXh

 

[Shannon Outlaw]

That it really horrible. I truly do hope Father Satan and thr gods give the earth there blessings there are so much to do for this earth. Its horrible. It makes me so depressed




------------------------------

On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 9:36 PM EDT firebird894 wrote:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... 21hch.html

THE carbon-rich peat forests of northern Sumatra are burning again as palm oil companies break Indonesian law to clear the land for their plantations.

Environmental groups have warned that the local population of critically endangered orang-utans are ''doomed'' unless the fires are stopped.

And smoke from the burning is at times engulfing cities in Malaysia and Thailand, prompting doctors in Kuala Lumpur to warn people with respiratory problems to wear masks.

Photos from the Tripa peat forest in Aceh show widespread burning, which the Indonesian environment ministry's head investigator, Syarifudin Akbar, estimates now covers almost 2000 hectares.

''This is a criminal case because the law says it's a crime to open a land by burning,'' Mr Akbar said.

Environmentalists say the fires were lit by palm oil companies and threaten about 200 orang-utans in the area - one of the densest populations in the world.

More than 3000 of the great apes once lived in the area being cleared. Now just 7000 survive on the whole island of Sumatra, which has been hit in recent years with uncontrolled clearing of primary forests for palm oil plantations.

The latest fires were picked up by satellites last week and confirmed by field staff working for environmental groups.

The environment department, the national police and the government's REDD task force are investigating.

A spokesman for the task force, Achmad Santosa, agreed the forest burning was ''an issue of law enforcement'' and ''exactly the job of the REDD task force, that is to ensure the enforcement of the law''.

The head of the REDD task force, Kuntoro, visited Aceh yesterday to speak to the Governor and check the situation.

But Kamaruddin, a lawyer for the Tripa community, said the various investigations under way were ''proving to be too little too late'' and called for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to intervene.

''These companies simply have to be ordered to stop [clearing] immediately and that order to be strictly enforced, otherwise the peat forests and inhabitants of Tripa will be lost forever,'' he said. Dr Yudhoyono has won global plaudits for saying ''deforestation is a thing of the past'' and that ''losing our tropical rainforests would constitute the ultimate national, global and planetary disaster''.

But that has not stopped the annual ''burning season'' of forests in Borneo and Sumatra as companies take advantage of dry weather to prepare the ground for new plantations.

''Despite all these words and statements and speeches about conserving orang-utans and peat lands and reducing carbon emissions … the evidence is there has been no change,'' said Dr Ian Singleton of the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Program.

Part of the area being burned is owned by palm oil company PT Kallista Alam, which was granted a concession now under challenge in the Indonesian courts. Former Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf said he granted the concession as a wake-up call to the international community over its inaction on a carbon pricing mechanism in Indonesian forests. However, a company spokesman said it had nothing to do with the fire, which had blown into its area from a neighbouring site. The owner of that land, PT Agro Maju Raya, could not be contacted.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... z1zhwsAnXh

 

[Shannon Outlaw]

Should we all do a ritual to stabilize the earth?




------------------------------

On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 9:36 PM EDT firebird894 wrote:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... 21hch.html

THE carbon-rich peat forests of northern Sumatra are burning again as palm oil companies break Indonesian law to clear the land for their plantations.

Environmental groups have warned that the local population of critically endangered orang-utans are ''doomed'' unless the fires are stopped.

And smoke from the burning is at times engulfing cities in Malaysia and Thailand, prompting doctors in Kuala Lumpur to warn people with respiratory problems to wear masks.

Photos from the Tripa peat forest in Aceh show widespread burning, which the Indonesian environment ministry's head investigator, Syarifudin Akbar, estimates now covers almost 2000 hectares.

''This is a criminal case because the law says it's a crime to open a land by burning,'' Mr Akbar said.

Environmentalists say the fires were lit by palm oil companies and threaten about 200 orang-utans in the area - one of the densest populations in the world.

More than 3000 of the great apes once lived in the area being cleared. Now just 7000 survive on the whole island of Sumatra, which has been hit in recent years with uncontrolled clearing of primary forests for palm oil plantations.

The latest fires were picked up by satellites last week and confirmed by field staff working for environmental groups.

The environment department, the national police and the government's REDD task force are investigating.

A spokesman for the task force, Achmad Santosa, agreed the forest burning was ''an issue of law enforcement'' and ''exactly the job of the REDD task force, that is to ensure the enforcement of the law''.

The head of the REDD task force, Kuntoro, visited Aceh yesterday to speak to the Governor and check the situation.

But Kamaruddin, a lawyer for the Tripa community, said the various investigations under way were ''proving to be too little too late'' and called for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to intervene.

''These companies simply have to be ordered to stop [clearing] immediately and that order to be strictly enforced, otherwise the peat forests and inhabitants of Tripa will be lost forever,'' he said. Dr Yudhoyono has won global plaudits for saying ''deforestation is a thing of the past'' and that ''losing our tropical rainforests would constitute the ultimate national, global and planetary disaster''.

But that has not stopped the annual ''burning season'' of forests in Borneo and Sumatra as companies take advantage of dry weather to prepare the ground for new plantations.

''Despite all these words and statements and speeches about conserving orang-utans and peat lands and reducing carbon emissions … the evidence is there has been no change,'' said Dr Ian Singleton of the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Program.

Part of the area being burned is owned by palm oil company PT Kallista Alam, which was granted a concession now under challenge in the Indonesian courts. Former Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf said he granted the concession as a wake-up call to the international community over its inaction on a carbon pricing mechanism in Indonesian forests. However, a company spokesman said it had nothing to do with the fire, which had blown into its area from a neighbouring site. The owner of that land, PT Agro Maju Raya, could not be contacted.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... z1zhwsAnXh

 

[firebird894]

I think it would be more effective to do a series of rituals targeting specific problems and destruction of specific companies and the kikes behind it, otherwise it is in my understanding too diluted over too vast a problem. The other problem is the way things still are you take down one target and another pops up in its place. We should still direct as much energy as possible into the earth, via certain locations perhaps?

hail Satan

--- In [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url], Shannon Outlaw <soutlaw92@... wrote:


Should we all do a ritual to stabilize the earth?




------------------------------
On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 9:36 PM EDT firebird894 wrote:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... 21hch.html

THE carbon-rich peat forests of northern Sumatra are burning again as palm oil companies break Indonesian law to clear the land for their plantations.

Environmental groups have warned that the local population of critically endangered orang-utans are ''doomed'' unless the fires are stopped.

And smoke from the burning is at times engulfing cities in Malaysia and Thailand, prompting doctors in Kuala Lumpur to warn people with respiratory problems to wear masks.

Photos from the Tripa peat forest in Aceh show widespread burning, which the Indonesian environment ministry's head investigator, Syarifudin Akbar, estimates now covers almost 2000 hectares.

''This is a criminal case because the law says it's a crime to open a land by burning,'' Mr Akbar said.

Environmentalists say the fires were lit by palm oil companies and threaten about 200 orang-utans in the area - one of the densest populations in the world.

More than 3000 of the great apes once lived in the area being cleared. Now just 7000 survive on the whole island of Sumatra, which has been hit in recent years with uncontrolled clearing of primary forests for palm oil plantations.

The latest fires were picked up by satellites last week and confirmed by field staff working for environmental groups.

The environment department, the national police and the government's REDD task force are investigating.

A spokesman for the task force, Achmad Santosa, agreed the forest burning was ''an issue of law enforcement'' and ''exactly the job of the REDD task force, that is to ensure the enforcement of the law''.

The head of the REDD task force, Kuntoro, visited Aceh yesterday to speak to the Governor and check the situation.

But Kamaruddin, a lawyer for the Tripa community, said the various investigations under way were ''proving to be too little too late'' and called for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to intervene.

''These companies simply have to be ordered to stop [clearing] immediately and that order to be strictly enforced, otherwise the peat forests and inhabitants of Tripa will be lost forever,'' he said. Dr Yudhoyono has won global plaudits for saying ''deforestation is a thing of the past'' and that ''losing our tropical rainforests would constitute the ultimate national, global and planetary disaster''.

But that has not stopped the annual ''burning season'' of forests in Borneo and Sumatra as companies take advantage of dry weather to prepare the ground for new plantations.

''Despite all these words and statements and speeches about conserving orang-utans and peat lands and reducing carbon emissions … the evidence is there has been no change,'' said Dr Ian Singleton of the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Program.

Part of the area being burned is owned by palm oil company PT Kallista Alam, which was granted a concession now under challenge in the Indonesian courts. Former Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf said he granted the concession as a wake-up call to the international community over its inaction on a carbon pricing mechanism in Indonesian forests. However, a company spokesman said it had nothing to do with the fire, which had blown into its area from a neighbouring site. The owner of that land, PT Agro Maju Raya, could not be contacted.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... z1zhwsAnXh

 

[Shannon Outlaw]

I suppose. Its just that we would need a lot of us to participate in this to make a big effect.


------------------------------

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 10:38 PM EDT firebird894 wrote:

I think it would be more effective to do a series of rituals targeting specific problems and destruction of specific companies and the kikes behind it, otherwise it is in my understanding too diluted over too vast a problem. The other problem is the way things still are you take down one target and another pops up in its place. We should still direct as much energy as possible into the earth, via certain locations perhaps?

hail Satan

--- In [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url], Shannon Outlaw <soutlaw92@... wrote:


Should we all do a ritual to stabilize the earth?




------------------------------
On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 9:36 PM EDT firebird894 wrote:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... 21hch.html

THE carbon-rich peat forests of northern Sumatra are burning again as palm oil companies break Indonesian law to clear the land for their plantations.

Environmental groups have warned that the local population of critically endangered orang-utans are ''doomed'' unless the fires are stopped.

And smoke from the burning is at times engulfing cities in Malaysia and Thailand, prompting doctors in Kuala Lumpur to warn people with respiratory problems to wear masks.

Photos from the Tripa peat forest in Aceh show widespread burning, which the Indonesian environment ministry's head investigator, Syarifudin Akbar, estimates now covers almost 2000 hectares.

''This is a criminal case because the law says it's a crime to open a land by burning,'' Mr Akbar said.

Environmentalists say the fires were lit by palm oil companies and threaten about 200 orang-utans in the area - one of the densest populations in the world.

More than 3000 of the great apes once lived in the area being cleared. Now just 7000 survive on the whole island of Sumatra, which has been hit in recent years with uncontrolled clearing of primary forests for palm oil plantations.

The latest fires were picked up by satellites last week and confirmed by field staff working for environmental groups.

The environment department, the national police and the government's REDD task force are investigating.

A spokesman for the task force, Achmad Santosa, agreed the forest burning was ''an issue of law enforcement'' and ''exactly the job of the REDD task force, that is to ensure the enforcement of the law''.

The head of the REDD task force, Kuntoro, visited Aceh yesterday to speak to the Governor and check the situation.

But Kamaruddin, a lawyer for the Tripa community, said the various investigations under way were ''proving to be too little too late'' and called for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to intervene.

''These companies simply have to be ordered to stop [clearing] immediately and that order to be strictly enforced, otherwise the peat forests and inhabitants of Tripa will be lost forever,'' he said. Dr Yudhoyono has won global plaudits for saying ''deforestation is a thing of the past'' and that ''losing our tropical rainforests would constitute the ultimate national, global and planetary disaster''.

But that has not stopped the annual ''burning season'' of forests in Borneo and Sumatra as companies take advantage of dry weather to prepare the ground for new plantations.

''Despite all these words and statements and speeches about conserving orang-utans and peat lands and reducing carbon emissions … the evidence is there has been no change,'' said Dr Ian Singleton of the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Program.

Part of the area being burned is owned by palm oil company PT Kallista Alam, which was granted a concession now under challenge in the Indonesian courts. Former Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf said he granted the concession as a wake-up call to the international community over its inaction on a carbon pricing mechanism in Indonesian forests. However, a company spokesman said it had nothing to do with the fire, which had blown into its area from a neighbouring site. The owner of that land, PT Agro Maju Raya, could not be contacted.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... z1zhwsAnXh

 

[firebird894]

I am going to start local, we can all do that being sensitive to earth energies helps a lot, also could use a pendulum to help find places. In the meantime spread awareness of things like this palm oil clearing people see so many horrible news stories I think they start to tune out and not really able to cope with it all. people say what can I do? One person... well start local set an example see if you can heal a small problem in your local area or start a project with young people to get them interested in nature, help animals. See if any endangered birds or other animals are in your area and see what you can do to help.
The point down pentagram sends energy into the earth perhaps make some small ones and put them places and meditate on them, vibrate runes etc into the earth. A new shopping centre was built near me recently and a big area of old bushland was cleared first time I went there I felt awfull, the place felt terrible. Where the bush once was now is a multi acre conccrete carpark. The area needed the shops but the area needs healing. Animals and birds have lost their homes and are running out of places to go and there has been a big energy disruption I can feel it now and it spreads further than the actual site.
There are pockets of energy in my area where my horses all spook easily and the spots are what I call black spots, accidents etc more likely to happen. Other ways to find them too if you cant feel it, using a pendulum on a map or if you know of certain spots that feel uncomefortable or are prone to accidents or fights etc.
I am aiming to heal and clear as much negative and stuck energy in my home and imediate area as possible and then expand it. The less crap festering around me I have to deal with the more energy I will have to advance myself and in turn do more.

Hail Satan

--- In [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url], Shannon Outlaw <soutlaw92@... wrote:



I suppose. Its just that we would need a lot of us to participate in this to make a big effect.


------------------------------
On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 10:38 PM EDT firebird894 wrote:

I think it would be more effective to do a series of rituals targeting specific problems and destruction of specific companies and the kikes behind it, otherwise it is in my understanding too diluted over too vast a problem. The other problem is the way things still are you take down one target and another pops up in its place. We should still direct as much energy as possible into the earth, via certain locations perhaps?

hail Satan

--- In [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url], Shannon Outlaw <soutlaw92@ wrote:


Should we all do a ritual to stabilize the earth?




------------------------------
On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 9:36 PM EDT firebird894 wrote:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... 21hch.html

THE carbon-rich peat forests of northern Sumatra are burning again as palm oil companies break Indonesian law to clear the land for their plantations.

Environmental groups have warned that the local population of critically endangered orang-utans are ''doomed'' unless the fires are stopped.

And smoke from the burning is at times engulfing cities in Malaysia and Thailand, prompting doctors in Kuala Lumpur to warn people with respiratory problems to wear masks.

Photos from the Tripa peat forest in Aceh show widespread burning, which the Indonesian environment ministry's head investigator, Syarifudin Akbar, estimates now covers almost 2000 hectares.

''This is a criminal case because the law says it's a crime to open a land by burning,'' Mr Akbar said.

Environmentalists say the fires were lit by palm oil companies and threaten about 200 orang-utans in the area - one of the densest populations in the world.

More than 3000 of the great apes once lived in the area being cleared. Now just 7000 survive on the whole island of Sumatra, which has been hit in recent years with uncontrolled clearing of primary forests for palm oil plantations.

The latest fires were picked up by satellites last week and confirmed by field staff working for environmental groups.

The environment department, the national police and the government's REDD task force are investigating.

A spokesman for the task force, Achmad Santosa, agreed the forest burning was ''an issue of law enforcement'' and ''exactly the job of the REDD task force, that is to ensure the enforcement of the law''.

The head of the REDD task force, Kuntoro, visited Aceh yesterday to speak to the Governor and check the situation.

But Kamaruddin, a lawyer for the Tripa community, said the various investigations under way were ''proving to be too little too late'' and called for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to intervene.

''These companies simply have to be ordered to stop [clearing] immediately and that order to be strictly enforced, otherwise the peat forests and inhabitants of Tripa will be lost forever,'' he said. Dr Yudhoyono has won global plaudits for saying ''deforestation is a thing of the past'' and that ''losing our tropical rainforests would constitute the ultimate national, global and planetary disaster''.

But that has not stopped the annual ''burning season'' of forests in Borneo and Sumatra as companies take advantage of dry weather to prepare the ground for new plantations.

''Despite all these words and statements and speeches about conserving orang-utans and peat lands and reducing carbon emissions … the evidence is there has been no change,'' said Dr Ian Singleton of the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Program.

Part of the area being burned is owned by palm oil company PT Kallista Alam, which was granted a concession now under challenge in the Indonesian courts. Former Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf said he granted the concession as a wake-up call to the international community over its inaction on a carbon pricing mechanism in Indonesian forests. However, a company spokesman said it had nothing to do with the fire, which had blown into its area from a neighbouring site. The owner of that land, PT Agro Maju Raya, could not be contacted.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... z1zhwsAnXh

 

[Shannon Outlaw]

Thank you for the idea Firebird You are an inspiring person <3



------------------------------

On Sat, Jul 7, 2012 1:41 AM EDT firebird894 wrote:

I am going to start local, we can all do that being sensitive to earth energies helps a lot, also could use a pendulum to help find places. In the meantime spread awareness of things like this palm oil clearing people see so many horrible news stories I think they start to tune out and not really able to cope with it all. people say what can I do? One person... well start local set an example see if you can heal a small problem in your local area or start a project with young people to get them interested in nature, help animals. See if any endangered birds or other animals are in your area and see what you can do to help.
The point down pentagram sends energy into the earth perhaps make some small ones and put them places and meditate on them, vibrate runes etc into the earth. A new shopping centre was built near me recently and a big area of old bushland was cleared first time I went there I felt awfull, the place felt terrible. Where the bush once was now is a multi acre conccrete carpark. The area needed the shops but the area needs healing. Animals and birds have lost their homes and are running out of places to go and there has been a big energy disruption I can feel it now and it spreads further than the actual site.
There are pockets of energy in my area where my horses all spook easily and the spots are what I call black spots, accidents etc more likely to happen. Other ways to find them too if you cant feel it, using a pendulum on a map or if you know of certain spots that feel uncomefortable or are prone to accidents or fights etc.
I am aiming to heal and clear as much negative and stuck energy in my home and imediate area as possible and then expand it. The less crap festering around me I have to deal with the more energy I will have to advance myself and in turn do more.

Hail Satan

--- In [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url], Shannon Outlaw <soutlaw92@... wrote:



I suppose. Its just that we would need a lot of us to participate in this to make a big effect.


------------------------------
On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 10:38 PM EDT firebird894 wrote:

I think it would be more effective to do a series of rituals targeting specific problems and destruction of specific companies and the kikes behind it, otherwise it is in my understanding too diluted over too vast a problem. The other problem is the way things still are you take down one target and another pops up in its place. We should still direct as much energy as possible into the earth, via certain locations perhaps?

hail Satan

--- In [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url], Shannon Outlaw <soutlaw92@ wrote:


Should we all do a ritual to stabilize the earth?




------------------------------
On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 9:36 PM EDT firebird894 wrote:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... 21hch.html

THE carbon-rich peat forests of northern Sumatra are burning again as palm oil companies break Indonesian law to clear the land for their plantations.

Environmental groups have warned that the local population of critically endangered orang-utans are ''doomed'' unless the fires are stopped.

And smoke from the burning is at times engulfing cities in Malaysia and Thailand, prompting doctors in Kuala Lumpur to warn people with respiratory problems to wear masks.

Photos from the Tripa peat forest in Aceh show widespread burning, which the Indonesian environment ministry's head investigator, Syarifudin Akbar, estimates now covers almost 2000 hectares.

''This is a criminal case because the law says it's a crime to open a land by burning,'' Mr Akbar said.

Environmentalists say the fires were lit by palm oil companies and threaten about 200 orang-utans in the area - one of the densest populations in the world.

More than 3000 of the great apes once lived in the area being cleared. Now just 7000 survive on the whole island of Sumatra, which has been hit in recent years with uncontrolled clearing of primary forests for palm oil plantations.

The latest fires were picked up by satellites last week and confirmed by field staff working for environmental groups.

The environment department, the national police and the government's REDD task force are investigating.

A spokesman for the task force, Achmad Santosa, agreed the forest burning was ''an issue of law enforcement'' and ''exactly the job of the REDD task force, that is to ensure the enforcement of the law''.

The head of the REDD task force, Kuntoro, visited Aceh yesterday to speak to the Governor and check the situation.

But Kamaruddin, a lawyer for the Tripa community, said the various investigations under way were ''proving to be too little too late'' and called for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to intervene.

''These companies simply have to be ordered to stop [clearing] immediately and that order to be strictly enforced, otherwise the peat forests and inhabitants of Tripa will be lost forever,'' he said. Dr Yudhoyono has won global plaudits for saying ''deforestation is a thing of the past'' and that ''losing our tropical rainforests would constitute the ultimate national, global and planetary disaster''.

But that has not stopped the annual ''burning season'' of forests in Borneo and Sumatra as companies take advantage of dry weather to prepare the ground for new plantations.

''Despite all these words and statements and speeches about conserving orang-utans and peat lands and reducing carbon emissions … the evidence is there has been no change,'' said Dr Ian Singleton of the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Program.

Part of the area being burned is owned by palm oil company PT Kallista Alam, which was granted a concession now under challenge in the Indonesian courts. Former Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf said he granted the concession as a wake-up call to the international community over its inaction on a carbon pricing mechanism in Indonesian forests. However, a company spokesman said it had nothing to do with the fire, which had blown into its area from a neighbouring site. The owner of that land, PT Agro Maju Raya, could not be contacted.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/sumatra-bur ... z1zhwsAnXh