Riau, 22 August 2017 – 16 villages in Riau and Jambi affirmed their commitment to preventing national fires by joining the second year of the Fire Free Village Program, which was inaugurated by Asian Agri today.
Asian Agri’s Fire Free Village Fire Program (FFVP) is a synergy between communities, governments and companies to reduce land fires. The program is supported by community initiatives incorporated in the Fire Awareness Community to prevent fires and haze in their neighborhoods.
At the signing of the MoU for the Asian Agri Fire Free Village Program, Montty Girianna, Deputy for Coordination of Energy, Natural Resources and Environment, Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia on the Award and Signing of the MoU of, encouraged the participation of other villages in the program.
“The contribution of villages to participate in fire prevention is highly appreciated. Community efforts to preserve the environment are a manifestation of responsibility to keep a healthy environment that can be enjoyed by our children and grandchildren in the future, “said Montty.
In 2016, nine villages in Riau and Jambi joined the program, and succeeded in decreasing the amount of land affected by fire to 7.98 hectares from 13.75 hectares the previous year. The nine villages are Delik Village, Lalang Kabung Village, Rantau Baru Village, Lubuk Ogong Village, Tambak Village, Segati Village, Sotol Village in Riau, and Lubuk Lawas Village and Lubuk Bernai Village in Jambi.
This year, seven new villages have joined to continue the fire prevention commitment: Terusan Village and Bagan Limau Village in Riau and Tupo Sumay Village, Suo Suo Village, Semambu Village, Teriti Village, and Muara Sekalo Village in Jambi.
Erman, Head of the Fire Community Awareness in Terusan Village, expressed his desire to join the Fire-Free Village program based on the bad experience of smoke caused by fire.
“We want to take a role because the fire has become a national problem; the prevention should be done together. Many people have been affected by the bad impact and we do not want the same thing to happen again to our families and our community,” said Erman.
Asian Agri, as a company that is committed to environmental sustainability, fully supports the community’s initiatives to join the Fire Free Village Program.
“We are committed to supporting fire prevention efforts in Indonesia. We believe that this joint synergy can contribute positively to decrease national forest and land fires,” said Welly Pardede, Head of Sustainability Operations & CSR Asian Agri.
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About Asian Agri:
Asian Agri is one of the leading private companies in Indonesia producing crude palm oil (CPO) since 1979 and employs around 25,000 people today. Since 1987, Asian Agri has been a pioneer of the Indonesian government’s Trans-National Government Migration (PIR-Trans) program. Today, the company manages 100,000 Ha of land and partners 30,000 smallholder families in Riau and Jambi who operate 60,000 Ha of palm oil plantation.
Asian Agri’s success in becoming one of the leading CPO companies has been acknowledged internationally with the ISO 14001 certification for all of its operations. Its Learning Institute in Pelalawan, Riau, as well as its nursery research center in Kampar, Riau are ISO 9001 certified. In addition, Asian Agri’s R&D Center in Tebing Tinggi has also obtained certification by the International Plant-Analytical Exchange at the WEPAL lab at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, for its high standards.
More than 86% of both owned plantations in North Sumatra, Riau & Jambi provinces & scheme smallholder plantations in Riau & Jambi provinces have been RSPO certified.
All plantations have also been ISCC-certified (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification), including plantation owned by smallholders. Palm oil mills and plantation in Buatan, Ukui, Soga, Tungkul Ulu, and Muara Bulian have been ISPO (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil) certified.
For further information, please contact:
| Maria Sidabutar |
| Head of Corporate Communications |
| E-mail: Maria_Sidabutar@www.asianagri.com |
| DID: +6221 230 1119 |
